By Chris Forrester
January 19, 2022
Airbus has won a series of contracts for a number of new satellites which will be built at its joint-venture (with OneWeb) Florida factory. The first couple of craft will be built at the Airbus facility in Toulouse prior to shifting construction to the Florida production base.
The 15-unit order comes from San Francisco-based Loft Orbital which offers its ‘Arrow’ satellite platform for a number of users. Its customers use a core Arrow vehicle which can then be adapted for specific missions.
Loft, for example, already has an order with LeoStella and which is looking to see a satellite launched in 2023.
This agreement with Airbus takes the concept to a higher level and Loft expects to start taking delivery of the Airbus-built kit next year.
Loft says it has a $100 million backlog of satellite orders booked.
The OneWeb factory is set up to automate many of the processes involved in mass-building of satellites.
