NewOrbit has booked the first flight of a commercial VLEO satellite for 2028
Space technically starts at 100km, but nothing in space operates below the ISS at 400km. That’s a lot of space to leave unused. Commonly referred to as Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), the harsh environment is what scares away most operators. Ionized air is thicker at these lower altitudes, chewing away at most satellite materials and inducing drag that left unchecked will pull most spacecraft out of orbit in weeks to months. Overcoming this requires stronger thrusters than most fly, and more fuel that adds cost to launch. If someone figures out a way to vault those hurdles though, then the value of a lower orbit is unlocked: higher resolution images, higher power signals, and less power consumption for equivalent activities at higher orbits like SAR and PNT. NewOrbit has done exactly that, and they’re ready to prove it with the first booked launch of a commercial VLEO spacecraft for 2028, effectively announcing this new spaceflight domain open for business.
The core technology that’s enabling NewOrbit to move faster than the roughly dozen other companies that have announced VLEO spacecraft in the past year is their thruster technology. They’ve built a grid ion thruster that’s modified to survive for over 5 years in the harsher ionized environment while maintaining impressive performance. NewOrbit CEO Anatolii Papulov explains why their thruster “…is so special. The main thing which people are struggling with is that they need to bring a huge amount of propellant to stay at this orbit…So we have a very high ISP of up to 4,000 to 4500 seconds.” ISP, or specific impulse, is effectively the fuel efficiency of a thruster, and NewOrbit’s is very high. For context Hall Effect thrusters are the most common choice for spacecraft and can only reach half the efficiency. While other grid ion thrusters are available, and becoming popular in Europe, the ISP is only half the battle. The high ISP makes them suitable for carrying a small load of fuel to VLEO, but they still can’t handle degradation from atomic oxygen in high atmosphere. NewOrbit has solved this by refining their design as Anatolii explains they’ve “…developed a specific cathode that can operate on air itself and nothing will happen to it. There are no parts inside that can degrade. So if we have direct impact of atomic oxygen for many many years, it would be able to sustain just by what kind of technology we are specifically using.” Such a thruster gives them unmatched capability for VLEO flight just by nature of there not being a comparable alternative.
Just having a highly performant thruster is not enough though, you can’t just attach it to any spacecraft and be able to fly at lower orbits. Perhaps as impressive as the thruster is the satellite they’ve built around it. Anatolii emphasized that flying in VLEO is “…a combination of many different technologies not only in propulsion but also in aerodynamics in attitude control, drag prediction, drag reduction and all of that. If you just have the thruster, you will not be able to put this on an existing satellite and make it work. You need to build the entire thing to make it work.” To achieve this they’ve built NEO, a spacecraft that can handle all the unique challenges of a VLEO orbit, including hosting payloads in a way that allows them to survive for full missions in atmosphere. NEO-1 is the first flight of this spacecraft that NewOrbit announced will be flying in 2028, and is already booked with several payloads including Genesia, the Japanese optics specialist that built the telescope for Tsubame, one of the two other satellites that have ever flown in VLEO. This payload will provide high resolution imagery from NewOrbit’s spacecraft, and along with two other undisclosed customers, will prove out the benefits of flying closer to Earth.
This announcement from NewOrbit is significant because it’s the first concrete date we’ve seen in the industry for the arrival of commercial VLEO. There’s been several companies announcing their intention to develop spacecraft for the domain, but so far no strong signal on when they will be flying. Recently Kreios Space announced their first flight targeting roughly 2028, but hedging that claim by stating that they’re waiting to see market demand solidify first. NewOrbit isn’t waiting, they’ve booked their flight with RIDE! and with customers onboard, prove the value that will drive the market to maturation. Anatolii is clear about the market he’s serving “…what we see right now is that the majority of the earth observation companies today always pursue higher resolutions. So if they want double the resolution they need to build a telescope which is eight times bigger. What they get with us is that they actually don’t need to develop this new type of telescope, they can just use our platform with the existing payload and get to the target that they want without new developments.” Their Genesia customer brings past experience of flying on JAXA’s VLEO mission to prove Anatolii’s point, and flying their next imager on NEO-1 will not only further prove the operational readiness for VLEO imagers, but also kickstart the market by providing high resolution imagery.
By proving out the market themselves, they’re able to move faster than competitors, not waiting for demand signals or proof of operation. Anatolii explains that the plan they’re executing allows them to leverage their own success to ratchet up to scale needed for full proliferation: “…we’ll be able to manufacture a dozen satellites we will scale to produce hundreds…you cannot go really into telecom directly with VLEO technology because if you’re deploying thousands of satellites, you have to make sure that they work before you do that. With Earth observation, you just have one satellite and you can close the use case.” This approach allows them to prove out their technology early, while delivering real value to their customers and their respective end consumers. Then scale that success through mass manufacturing that they can build towards in parallel. This all lines up so that they can prove VLEO is open for business and be ready to respond to the boom in demand that all companies pursuing VLEO expects. Already we’ve seen some signals from around the world that indicate this market is ready to arrive. In December Starlink lowered 4,400 of their satellites to 450km, boosting the power of their signals, albeit shortening their lifetime. And last month in Europe, IRIS2 announced the addition of 20 VLEO satellites to their hybrid communication constellation. This confluence of events is likely what’s driving an increased interest in VLEO, but so far NewOrbit is the one betting biggest on its imminent arrival.
NewOrbit has spent years developing the core technology, so they’ve been preparing for this development long before the signals started appearing that a market may manifest soon. This is why they’re able to move quickly to launch real payloads to orbit in a little over a year. If you’re ready to access the improved performance from flying in VLEO, then be sure to reach out to NewOrbit as they still have a limited number of payload slots available for their NEO-1 flight. And if you’d like to be involved in helping them build for the future of spaceflight, then check them out!
Watch the full interview with Anatolii Papulov on our YouTube
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