WASHINGTON — Loft Orbital is teaming up with SkyServe to utilize Earth observation and edge computing capabilities on a recently deployed satellite.
The two companies declared on March 19 that SkyServe will make use of Loft Orbital’s YAM-6 spacecraft. It was launched on the Transporter-10 rideshare mission on March 4.The aim is to showcase artificial intelligence capabilities by examining optical and hyperspectral imagery collected by the satellite.
In what the companies refer to as Mission Denali, SkyServe, an Indian startup, will integrate its SkyServe STORM platform on the spacecraft. This will allow customers to deploy AI models for real-time analysis of the imagery captured by the satellite.
Vinay Simha, CEO of SkyServe, expressed pride in the partnership with Loft Orbital, stating that they are providing essential space infrastructure and multi-sensor data processing for SkyServe’s ambitious mission to deliver significant value for downstream users.
YAM-6 is Loft Orbital’s first spacecraft capable of executing what the company describes as “virtual missions,” in which the spacecraft can be configured via software to carry out various missions based on customer requirements. Customers create software apps that can leverage the spacecraft’s capabilities, including cameras, onboard processing, and inter-satellite links.
“Virtual missions present the opportunity to significantly reduce time to orbit,” explained Bethany Pulcini-Baldwin, virtual missions product lead at Loft Orbital, in a recent blog post. “Software apps that require computing power, such as AI and machine learning, enable us to utilize the unique perspective of space in various important ways.”
The company likens developing applications for the satellite to deploying applications on a cloud server. It is collaborating with Microsoft’s Azure Space on the cloud development environment and on-orbit application framework for YAM-6.
Gautier Brunet, vice president of sales at Loft Orbital, mentioned that with this virtual mission, they are offering customers like SkyServe “the infrastructure that enables preprocessing of data from multiple sensors to support a wide range of AI applications in space.”
