Consortium · United Arab Emirates (Middle East)

Altair constellation (Loft Orbital, Marlan Space, Orbitworks)

Altair (Orbitworks, Abu Dhabi)

Altair-1, the program's first satellite, launched on SpaceX Transporter-18 on 1 Oct 2026 with NVIDIA GPUs and is commissioning; edge class. Its next announced step is the other nine satellites of the first ten, stated as through 2027.

Stage: 5 of 7; Own satellite flown
Verified funding: None disclosed; no round found
Next announced step: 2027; as the organisation stated it
Planned satellites: 50 satellites; company claim

Company profile on SpaceNexus Compare in the program database Markdown version

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Done
Failed
Announced target (end of the stated window)
Today

Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown

Altair-1, the program's first satellite, launched on SpaceX Transporter-18 on 1 Oct 2026 with NVIDIA GPUs and is commissioning; edge class.[1][2]

What the stage means: Its own compute satellite flown.

Milestones

8 Sep 2026DoneReported
IHC acquires 80% of Marlan Space
Source: Via Satellite
9 Sep 2026DoneConfirmed
$1B Altair program signed in Paris; first 10 satellites in production
Partners: Mistral AI, BlackSky; MaiaSpace preferred launcher.
Sources: Orbitworks; DatacenterDynamics
1 Oct 2026DoneConfirmed
Altair-1 launched on Transporter-18; signal acquired, commissioning
Built by Orbitworks with NVIDIA GPUs. Edge class.
Sources: SatellitePro ME; TechAfrica News; NewSpace Economy

Announced next steps

Targets as the organisation stated them. When a date moved, every move is listed with its source; a narrower window is shown as a narrowing.

through 2027
The other nine satellites of the first ten[1][2]
about five years
Deploy the 50-satellite constellation[1]

What to watch · SpaceNexus note, not a prediction

Whether the first Altair satellite launches in October 2026.

Approach and key figures

Orbit: LEO
Architecture: 50-satellite AI constellation billed as an orbital data center, with an onboard "LLM store"; Mistral vision-language models analyze radar and optical data in orbit and send alerts
Compute: Onboard AI (specs not disclosed)
Customers and partners: France, Europe and UAE users: maritime awareness, wildfire, disaster response

Key figures with confidence labels and sources
Figure	Value	Confidence and source
Planned satellites	50 satellites	Company claim[1]
Program value	1 USD billion (program investment, not a funding round)	Company claim[1][2]

All cautions

More an AI-enabled Earth-observation constellation than a general-purpose data center; "orbital data center" is the press framing.
The $1B is a program commitment, not a verified funding round; excluded from totals.
Edge class: Altair-1 is one AI-enabled satellite, not a data-center-scale node.
The $1B, 50-satellite plan (9 Sep 2026) is a program funded by Loft, Marlan and partners, not a firm contract.

People

Pierre-Damien Vaujour (CEO, Loft Orbital) · Hamdullah Mohib (CEO, Marlan Space and Orbitworks) · Syed Basar Shueb (CEO, IHC)

How it compares

Altair constellation (Loft Orbital, Marlan Space, Orbitworks) beside programs at the same stage or in the same region
Program	Stage	Verified funding	Next step
Altair (this page)	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: The other nine satellites of the first ten
Aethero	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	$8.4M	Oct 2026: Titan: Jetson Thor compute cluster on EnduroSat FRAME-15
Google Suncatcher	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Two-satellite mission testing inter-satellite laser links
KP Labs	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	Mid-2026: Leopard DPU on ESA OPS-SAT VOLT
Orbital Chenguang	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2025 to 2027: First computing constellation and key technologies
Planet	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Pair of Suncatcher satellites with Google
Space String	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	Q4 2027: G1 verification satellite (11.5 kW compute payload)

All 59 entries on the orbital data centers tracker

Evidence reviewed 5 Oct 2026, fact-checked against primary sources. Nothing on this page is sponsored, and no company can pay to change, reorder or preview it. Spotted an error? Report a correction. How stages and labels work.

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Done
Failed
Announced target (end of the stated window)
Today

Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown

Altair-1, the program's first satellite, launched on SpaceX Transporter-18 on 1 Oct 2026 with NVIDIA GPUs and is commissioning; edge class.[1][2]

What the stage means: Its own compute satellite flown.

Milestones

8 Sep 2026DoneReported
IHC acquires 80% of Marlan Space
Source: Via Satellite
9 Sep 2026DoneConfirmed
$1B Altair program signed in Paris; first 10 satellites in production
Partners: Mistral AI, BlackSky; MaiaSpace preferred launcher.
Sources: Orbitworks; DatacenterDynamics
1 Oct 2026DoneConfirmed
Altair-1 launched on Transporter-18; signal acquired, commissioning
Built by Orbitworks with NVIDIA GPUs. Edge class.
Sources: SatellitePro ME; TechAfrica News; NewSpace Economy

Announced next steps

Targets as the organisation stated them. When a date moved, every move is listed with its source; a narrower window is shown as a narrowing.

through 2027
The other nine satellites of the first ten[1][2]
about five years
Deploy the 50-satellite constellation[1]

What to watch · SpaceNexus note, not a prediction

Whether the first Altair satellite launches in October 2026.

Approach and key figures

Orbit: LEO
Architecture: 50-satellite AI constellation billed as an orbital data center, with an onboard "LLM store"; Mistral vision-language models analyze radar and optical data in orbit and send alerts
Compute: Onboard AI (specs not disclosed)
Customers and partners: France, Europe and UAE users: maritime awareness, wildfire, disaster response

Key figures with confidence labels and sources
Figure	Value	Confidence and source
Planned satellites	50 satellites	Company claim[1]
Program value	1 USD billion (program investment, not a funding round)	Company claim[1][2]

All cautions

More an AI-enabled Earth-observation constellation than a general-purpose data center; "orbital data center" is the press framing.
The $1B is a program commitment, not a verified funding round; excluded from totals.
Edge class: Altair-1 is one AI-enabled satellite, not a data-center-scale node.
The $1B, 50-satellite plan (9 Sep 2026) is a program funded by Loft, Marlan and partners, not a firm contract.

How it compares

Altair constellation (Loft Orbital, Marlan Space, Orbitworks) beside programs at the same stage or in the same region
Program	Stage	Verified funding	Next step
Altair (this page)	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: The other nine satellites of the first ten
Aethero	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	$8.4M	Oct 2026: Titan: Jetson Thor compute cluster on EnduroSat FRAME-15
Google Suncatcher	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Two-satellite mission testing inter-satellite laser links
KP Labs	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	Mid-2026: Leopard DPU on ESA OPS-SAT VOLT
Orbital Chenguang	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2025 to 2027: First computing constellation and key technologies
Planet	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	2027: Pair of Suncatcher satellites with Google
Space String	Stage 5 of 7: Own satellite flown	Not counted	Q4 2027: G1 verification satellite (11.5 kW compute payload)

All 59 entries on the orbital data centers tracker

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Milestones

Announced next steps

Approach and key figures

All cautions

People

How it compares

Timeline: what happened, and what was promised

Milestones

Announced next steps

Approach and key figures

All cautions

People

How it compares

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