Introduction Of Loft Orbital
A strategic collaboration between U.S.-based startup Loft Orbital and Abu Dhabi-based Marlan Space is set to transform the satellite manufacturing landscape in the Middle East. This new joint venture, named Orbitworks, will be the first commercial firm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to mass produce satellites, marking a significant milestone in the region’s space industry.
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Marlan Space, a new entrant in the space sector, is affiliated with the International Holding Company (IHC), which is majority-controlled by the Royal Group. The Royal Group, owned by the ruling royal family of Abu Dhabi, is injecting over $100 million into the venture, underscoring the UAE’s commitment to expanding its domestic satellite manufacturing capabilities.
UAE’s Ambitious Space Agenda
The UAE has rapidly emerged as a formidable player in the global space arena, driven by high ambitions and substantial financial investments. Established less than a decade ago, the UAE Space Agency (UAESA) has already made significant strides, including sending the country’s first astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2019 and successfully launching a probe into Martian orbit in 2021.
The UAE’s space ecosystem boasts several key players beyond UAESA, including Space42—a merger of Yahsat and data analytics company Bayanat—along with the industrial giant EDGE Group and various academic institutions. With this robust foundation, the UAE is poised to deploy satellite constellations and strengthen its satellite manufacturing capabilities.
Loft Orbital’s Strategic Move
Loft Orbital CEO Pierre-Damien Vaujour has long seen the UAE as a pivotal market for the company. Loft Orbital, headquartered in San Francisco, specializes in buying satellite buses in bulk and providing customers with payload hosting services. The company’s standardized modular payload adaptor allows for seamless integration of customer hardware with spacecraft, while Loft handles launch integration and operational management.
Vaujour emphasized that Loft Orbital’s flexible hardware and operational model would enable the joint venture to collaborate with a diverse range of emerging players in the Middle East’s space sector. “Loft can work with any payload supplier, any bus or subsystem providers, any ground station provider, any cloud provider… We’re providing the JV the playbook for production, operations, and technology for satellites,” he stated.
Orbitworks: Scaling Satellite Production
Orbitworks aims to produce up to fifty 500-kilogram satellites annually. The hardware for the first ten satellites has already been secured, and the company plans to operate from a 50,000 square-foot facility in Abu Dhabi. The first satellite platform is expected to be assembled, integrated, and tested at this facility by early 2025.
To ensure compliance with U.S. regulations and export licenses, Loft Orbital has structured its agreements with Marlan Space meticulously. Loft Federal, a separate entity under Loft Orbital, will continue to focus on delivering classified contracts for U.S. national security customers.
A National Champion in the Making
Vaujour described Orbitworks as a venture with the potential to become the UAE’s national champion in satellite constellation production and operation. While the joint venture is starting with a focused scope, the long-term ambition is to scale operations significantly, aligning with the UAE’s broader regional and international goals.
“This entity that has been created has a mandate to become the national champion in the country for satellite constellation production and operation, and that’s something that is fairly new,” Vaujour noted. “While we’re starting with something small in scope, the idea is really to scale this at a different scale. The ambitions, both from the country, the region, and internationally for something like this is pretty big.”
With Orbitworks, the UAE continues to solidify its position as a leader in the space industry, driving innovation and expanding its footprint in the global satellite manufacturing market.
