WASHINGTON – The Earth observation company Satellogic announced on January 19 that it has signed a contract with SpaceX covering several upcoming launches of its satellites until next year.
The agreement with multiple launch services makes SpaceX Satellogic’s preferred provider for the launch of its constellation microsatellites, having previously relied on Chinese, European and Russian vehicles, including a launch of ten satellites as the primary payload on a long 6 March 5 November .
In an interview, Emiliano Kargieman, CEO of Satellogic, said the low prices and regular launch opportunities that SpaceX offered led his company to sign up. “The new rowing program that SpaceX has put together has reduced the price four or five times per kilogram,” he said. “It made the rideshare program compete really well in the market and it caused us to start talking to SpaceX.”
Satellogic plans to launch its next four launches with SpaceX, starting in June. Additional launches will take place in December and in March and June of 2022. All missions will be to the sun-synchronous orbits, with at least four satellites during the June launch. The company, which currently has 13 operational satellites, projects a constellation of about 60 satellites by the end of 2022 or early 2023.
The company also has the option to have satellites flown as cargo loads for rides on Starlink missions. It would go to orbits in the middle direction, which according to Kargieman would complement most of the constellation in solar-synchronous orbits. “It gives us more diversity in times of revisits to places of interest,” he said, adding that the company has one satellite in such an orbit. “We are using more satellites in the middle of the slope over the next 12-18 months, but we have not yet decided exactly when the launches will be.”
A further benefit of the agreement, he said, is the flexibility it offers to determine how many satellites to fly, as well as the options to allow satellites to fly on Starlink missions. “It gives us the opportunity to make these decisions closer to the launch date.”
While SpaceX is the preferred launch provider of Satellogic, Kargieman has not ruled out the use of other providers. “Because we may need a specific orbit, we may still decide to send a dedicated rocket every now and then to make sure we have the satellites where we want them,” he said.
Satellogic sees strong demand for high-resolution footage provided by its satellites, according to him, with demand accelerating government customers in particular over the past year. “On the government side, it is very clear that there is a significant unsatisfactory demand,” he said. “The pandemic has accelerated the demand for data for earth observation and geographic analysis.”
The question was a major factor in the decision to choose SpaceX, with the launch services that allowed Satellogic to accelerate the deployment of its constellation. “It’s a good point to invest more,” Kargieman said. “We feel strongly that this is a time when we need to double, enlarge and further market this data at an affordable price.”