Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) (“Spire” or “the Company”) launched five satellites this month on the SpaceX Transporter-5 Mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Spire Space Services, the company’s Space-as-a-Service (SPaaS) business, has satellites and hardware onboard the launch for:
- HANCOM inSPACE, initially a spin-off by Korea Aerospace Research Institute and now a part of HANCOM Group, will host an optical payload on a Spire 6U satellite. This will be the first commercial satellite mission for a private South Korean company.
- Myriota, a provider of global Internet of Things (IoT) service from satellites, will use software-defined radios (SDRs) onboard three Spire satellites to quickly and cost-effectively scale its network to offer global, low-latency IoT coverage. Last year, Myriota deployed its software on existing Spire satellites to expand its IoT coverage in a matter of weeks.
- Spire will also launch two 3U satellites that will support the demonstration of radio frequency (RF) signals detection and geolocation of L-band frequencies. The technology demonstration was funded by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), part of the UK Ministry of Defence.
Spire Space Services offers fast and scalable access to space through a subscription model that eliminates the high upfront cost of building and maintaining infrastructure in space. Commercial and government organizations can deploy and operate a constellation of satellites, a hosted payload, or a software application in space with Spire’s infrastructure.
Spire also launched two replenishment satellites to support the firm’s data solutions business, which encompasses the tracking of maritime, aviation, and weather activity from space. These satellites are equipped with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sensors to collect radio occultation and other weather product data.
Spire satellites are manifested on the mission through a multi-launch agreement between Spire and Exolaunch, which includes access to the Transporter missions through Exolaunch’s long-term launch arrangements with SpaceX. Exolaunch, a global provider of launch, in-space logistics and deployment services, will also provide Spire with deployment and integration services. Spire will launch additional satellites on SpaceX Transporter missions later this year.
“This launch is an exciting moment, with the most Space Services customers on board a single launch to date,” said Joel Spark, co-founder and general manager of Space Services, Spire. “We’re excited to see more organizations deploying and scaling their constellations using our established space, ground, and web infrastructure, leveraging the experience we’ve built across 150+ spacecraft, 30+ launch campaigns, and 350 years of space heritage to get their business launched quickly and with low risk.”
“Working with Spire Space Services is allowing us to rapidly scale the Myriota Network to meet the high demand for IoT services,” said Dr. David Haley, CTO and co-founder, Myriota. “Since commencing work In 2021, the highly collaborative Spire and Myriota partnership has been opening up greater message size and reduced latency for our customers across agriculture, oil and gas, construction, environmental monitoring and defense industries. With three additional satellites the program is well and truly in full swing. We’ll be continuing the rapid acceleration of our service and its features to enable better outcomes for our customers through simple, affordable access to data, anywhere.”
“We at DASA, working with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory Space Program, are excited to work with Spire to deploy a low-cost, rapid concept-to-technology demonstrator for global monitoring and geolocating signals,” said Fiona Hutchinson, Project Manager, DASA. “These capabilities not only enable military and security operations, but also underpin countless activities essential to our safety and way of life.”
Spire (NYSE: SPIR) is a global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, offering access to unique datasets and powerful insights about Earth from the ultimate vantage point so that organizations can make decisions with confidence, accuracy, and speed. Spire uses one of the world’s largest, multi-purpose, satellite constellations to source hard to acquire, valuable data and enriches it with predictive solutions. Spire then provides this data as a subscription to organizations around the world so they can improve business operations, decrease their environmental footprint, deploy resources for growth and competitive advantage, and mitigate risk. Spire gives commercial and government organizations the competitive advantage they seek to innovate and solve some of the world’s toughest problems with insights from space. Spire has offices in San Francisco, Boulder, Washington DC, Ontario, Glasgow, Oxfordshire, Luxembourg, and Singapore.