Capella Space Corporation has announced that two Acadia satellites, Acadia-4 and Acadia-5, will launch with SpaceX in 2024.
The Acadia-4 satellite will be launched to a 45-degree mid-inclination orbit (MIO) during SpaceX’s Bandwagon-1 mission no earlier than April of 2024, while the Acadia-5 satellite will be launched no earlier than June 2024 to a 97-degree SSO during SpaceX’s Transporter-11 mission via Exolaunch, who will provide mission management and integration services for this mission.
SpaceX announced the Bandwagon service in early August as a means of launching satellites on rideshare missions into mid-inclination orbits. Capella Space is one of the first to take advantage of this program. Launching Acadia-4 and Acadia-5 into MIO and SSO orbits further enhances Capella’s orbital and temporal diversity that allows the highest revisit over key regions and enables the Capella constellation to collect imagery at irregular times that bad actors cannot predict.
“Working with SpaceX to launch our Acadia satellites into a variety of orbits is a huge win for Capella and will enhance our ability to bring greater coverage and higher revisits over key areas of interest across our customer spectrum. With an advanced system design providing up to 5x more on-orbit imaging time per satellite relative to other commercial SAR providers, Capella is proud to serve customers in governments, academia and commercial sectors with reliable information that enables deeper understanding for better decision-making – these rideshare missions double down on the quality and breadth of the insights we can deliver.” — Frank Backes, CEO of Capella Space