Satellogic to launch 68 satellites with SpaceX (Image Credit: Space News)
Updated May 5 with comment from Satellogic spokesperson.
WASHINGTON — Earth imaging company Satellogic announced May 4 it signed a contract with SpaceX to launch 68 more satellites as it continues to build out its constellation.
Satellogic said the multiple launch agreement with SpaceX reserves capacity for 68 satellites on an unspecified number of future SpaceX launches. The companies did not disclose the terms of the agreement. A spokesperson for Satellogic said late May 4 that the agreement covers payload son at least four launches starting in early 2023.
Satellogic announced a similar agreement with SpaceX in January 2021 covering four rideshare launches. Satellogic flew four satellites on the Transporter-2 rideshare mission in June 2021 and five on the Transporter-4 mission that launched April 1.
“Today’s announcement ensures that we will be able to continue to launch our satellites as they are produced and that we remain on track to collect every square meter of the Earth’s surface every week in 2023,” Emiliano Kargieman, chief executive and co-founder of Satellogic, in a statement announcing the contract.
The contract announcement comes a day after Satellogic, which went public in January through a merger with a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC), published its financial results for 2021. The company reported revenue of $4.2 million, a net loss of $117.7 million and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of –$30.7 million. When Satellogic announced its SPAC merger in July 2021, it projected revenues of $7 million and adjusted EBITDA of –$32 million for 2021.
Kargieman said in the earnings announcement that the company plans to launch up to 12 more satellites this year, bringing its constellation to 34 satellites. The company has a goal of operating 200 or more satellites by 2025 to provide daily global remapping, and is building a factory in the Netherlands that will be able to produce 25 satellites a quarter by the third quarter of 2023.
That work is supported by the proceeds of the SPAC merger, which provided Satellogic with $168 million. “The capital will further position Satellogic to remap the entire surface of the Earth in sub-meter resolution, creating unprecedented data analytics and commercial applications,” Rick Dunn, chief financial officer of Satellogic, said in the earnings release. “We continue to expect rapid revenue growth over the near term.”
