A launch arrangement where multiple customer payloads share a single rocket — the dominant cost-per-kg path for SmallSats.
Rideshare is the practice of flying multiple satellites from different customers on a single launch. Modern rideshare programs — notably SpaceX's Transporter series — fly 100+ payloads per launch at advertised prices around $5,500/kg. Dedicated rideshare aggregators (Exolaunch, Spaceflight, D-Orbit) sell pre-purchased capacity to smaller customers and handle integration.
Rideshare is how SmallSats actually get to orbit affordably. It also stresses dedicated small-launch economics — if you're flying 200 kg to SSO and Transporter is $1.1M, a dedicated small-launch ticket has to compete on schedule, orbit precision, or both.
Operates Ariane 6 and Vega C launch vehicles from the Guiana Space Centre, serving European institutional and global commercial satellite customers
Develops solid and liquid-propellant launch vehicles for dedicated and rideshare satellite missions, suborbital scientific experimentation, and space tourism
Operates orbital transfer vehicles for last-mile satellite delivery, hosted payload services, space cloud computing, and in-orbit servicing
Provides rideshare launch services, mission management, and satellite deployment hardware for smallsats and CubeSats across multiple launch vehicles worldwide
Designs and operates orbital transfer vehicles that move payloads between orbits using high-thrust chemical propulsion, delivering to GEO in under a day
Operates a satellite-as-a-service platform that integrates, deploys, and operates customer payloads and AI applications on standardized LEO spacecraft
Provides in-space logistics, orbital transfer vehicles, and satellite deployment systems for small satellites from LEO to the Moon
The rideshare is designed to launch time-sensitive or non-standard payloads that can’t be accommodated on existing rideshare options. The post SEOPS Will Start Waymaker LEO Rideshares In 2028 appeared first on Payload.
Two companies best known for brokering payload space on SpaceX rideshare launches have each purchased Falcon 9 launches to meet the growing demand for such missions. The post Exolaunch and SEOPS purchase Falcon 9 launches for dedicated rideshare missions appeared first on SpaceNews.