Week in Space Data, every Friday.
Compare satellite bus platforms side-by-side: mass, power, design life, payload, flight heritage and propulsion, each figure quoted from a cited source.
Showing 19 of 19 satellite buses
Every bus checked against its sources on 2026-10-11. Figures are quoted as each source states them. Some give bus dry mass and others launch mass; some give payload power and others total or solar array power. They are not measured the same way, so this page does not rank buses against each other. A field no source supports is left out. Bus prices are rarely published, and none are shown. Classes (CubeSat, Smallsat, Medium, GEO, Constellation) are a SpaceNexus grouping by role, not a maker category.
Planet Labs
More than 360 Doves launched from 2013 (USGS report, Feb 2022)
Blue Canyon Technologies
Nearly 70 Blue Canyon CubeSats launched since 2015 (maker, company-wide)
Blue Canyon Technologies
3 units launched (maker product page)
Airbus Defence and Space, for Loft Orbital
The maker has not published specifications for this bus.
First Longbow (YAM-8) launched Mar 14, 2025; adapted from the Airbus Arrow bus, which Loft says has over 600 copies in orbit
Rocket Lab
Flew in Aug 2020 and Mar 2021; the Explorer variant flew CAPSTONE (June 2022) and ESCAPADE (Nov 2025)
York Space Systems
First S-CLASS launched May 5, 2019 (maker)
Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL)
Flown on TopSat, Beijing-1, CFESat, the five RapidEye satellites and Sapphire (launched Feb 25, 2013)
Ball Aerospace (part of BAE Systems since Feb 2024)
8 launched from 1999 (QuikSCAT) to 2017 (NOAA-20); QuickBird 1 was lost in a 2000 launch failure
Northrop Grumman
EAGLE (Apr 2018), LDPE-1 (Dec 2021) and ESPAStar-1 (June 2022) launched
Lanteris Space Systems (Maxar Space Systems until Oct 2025)
Launched to GEO more than 130 times since 1989; more than 90 in service (maker datasheet, NASA Rapid IV catalogue)
Boeing
47 launched (3 lost) from Dec 1999 to Nov 2025
Airbus Defence and Space
EUTELSAT 36D, launched Mar 30, 2024, was the fourth Eurostar Neo in orbit
Northrop Grumman (design from Orbital)
Lockheed Martin
Flight proven since 2019 under the LM 2100 name; the A2100 was renamed LM 2100 in Sept 2017
Airbus Defence and Space
The maker has not published specifications for this bus.
None delivered as of Nov 2025; the first three (Inmarsat GX7, 8 and 9) were expected to enter service in 2027
Thales Alenia Space
21 launched from 2005 to 2019; one (Eutelsat W3B) was lost after launch
Thales Alenia Space
First satellite, EUTELSAT KONNECT, launched Jan 16, 2020
OneWeb Satellites (Airbus and OneWeb joint venture)
634 in orbit as of May 20, 2023
SpaceX