Loft Orbital and Emirati investor Marlan Space want to fly 50 optical and radar satellites with AI on board, with models provided by French start-up Mistral.
The project announced by Loft Orbital and Marlan Space, a space investor based in the United Arab Emirates, involves an Earth observation constellation valued at one billion dollars and composed of about fifty satellites. The program combines optical sensors, radar and other instruments, all designed to run artificial intelligence processing directly in orbit rather than waiting for the data to return to the ground.
Two choices of suppliers are attracting attention. The on-board AI models will come from Mistral, the French start-up — a notable breakthrough for a European player in a segment so far dominated by American suppliers. The high-resolution satellites will be delivered by BlackSky.
The announcement is part of a broader movement: computing at the edge is reaching orbit. Satellogic is preparing its Merlin constellation, announced at one meter resolution with on-board AI processing. The argument is always the same: transmit conclusions rather than terabytes of raw images, to shorten the time between acquisition and decision.
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