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Spire Global, Inc.
251 Rhode Island Street, Suite 204
San Francisco, CA 94103
USA
Spire Global is a space-to-cloud CubeSat satellite operator that is specialized in the tracking of unique data sets from the Earth powered by a large constellation of small LEO satellites (nano-satellites), the Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR) CubeSat platform. Spire analyzes data from the tracking of maritime, aviation and weather patterns.
The company operates a fleet of more than 110 CubeSats, the second largest commercial constellation by number of satellites and the largest by number of sensors. The satellites are integrally designed and built by Spire. It has launched more than 140 satellites to orbit since the creation of the company in 2012.
Spire Global is headquartered in San Francisco, USA and has offices in Boulder, Washington in the USA, Glasgow in the UK, Luxembourg and Singapore.
Company History
Spire Global was originally known as NanoSatisfi, Inc. that was established in 2012 in San Francisco, USA. Three International Space University Graduates, Peter Platzer, Jeroen Cappaert and Joel Spark started the ArduSat projectto ‘democratize access to space’. ArduSat was partly financed thru the public crowdfunding platfom KickStarter and raised 100,000 USD.
In 2013 Spire partnered with Lemnos Labs in order to raise additional capital required for the manufacturing of the ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-2 (1U CubeSat) satellites. In February 2013 funds of 1.5million USD were raised by Investment and space companies such as Shasta Ventures, Lemnos Labs, E-merge, Grishin Robotics, and Beamonte Investments.
In November 2013 both ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X were successfully released from the Japanese Kibō Experiment Module of the ISS and quickly started transmitting data to Spire servers.
Following this experimentation, Spire engineers opted to focus on 3U nanosatellites to start porting more complex payloads In June 2014 the first iteration of its standard satellite format, LEMUR-1, was launched with the Dnepr rocket, a modified Ukrainian missile known as the R-36M operated by ICS Kosmotras.
In July 2014 Spire Global announced another 25 million USD of funding that was led by Venture Capitalists. In August 2014 the company announced that ArduSat would be spun-off of the company and would focus exclusively on educational technology in partnership with U.S. high schools. Also, in 2014, Spire opened its Singapore office and started steadily increasing its network of ground stations.
LEMUR Satellite Constellation
LEMUR-2 is the initial constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites built by Spire. These satellites carry two payloads for meteorology (SENSE payload) and ship AIS traffic tracking (STRATOS payload). Later satellites, beginning with the 78th satellite launched, carry also the AirSafe ASD-B payload to track airplanes.
The LEMUR-2 satellites are launched in small batches as secondary payloads on various rocket boosters executed by reputed launch providers:
# satellites | Mission | Launch Date | Launcher | Launch Operator |
ArduSat-1 | HTV/Kounotori-4 | Nov 19th, 2013 | H-IIB | MHI Launch S. Japan |
ArduSat-X | HTV/Kounotori-4 | Nov 19th, 2013 | H-IIB | MHI Launch S. Japan |
1 | LEMUR-1 | Jun 19th, 2014 | Dnepr | ICS Kosmotras |
4 | AstroSat | Sep 28th, 2015 | PSLV-C30 | ISRO India |
8 | OA-6 | Mar 22nd, 2016 | Atlas V | ULA USA |
1 | Deploy faulure | Mar 23rd, 2016 | Atlas V | ULA USA |
4 | Cygnus CRS-5 | Oct 17th, 2016 | Antares 230 | Orbital ATK/LM USA |
4 | Kounotori-6 | Sep 12th, 2016 | H-IIB | MHI Japan |
8 | CartoSat-2 | Feb 15th, 2017 | PSLV-C37 | ISRO India |
4 | OA-7 | Apr 18th, 2017 | Atlas V | ULA USA |
8 | CartoSat-2 | JUn 23rd, 2017 | PSLV-C38 | ISRO India |
8 | Kanopus-V-1K | Jul 14th, 2017 | Soyuz-2 | GK Launch Russia |
8 | Launch failure | Nov 12th, 2017 | Antares 230 | Orbital ATK/LM USA |
8 | Meteor-M 2-1 | Nov 28th, 2017 | Soyuz-2 | GK Launch Russia |
4 | CartoSat-2 | Jan 12th, 2018 | PSLV-C40 | ISRO India |
2 | ‘Still-Testing’ | Jan 21st, 2018 | Electron | Rocket Lab NZ |
4 | HysIS | Nov 29th, 2018 | PSLV-C43 | ISRO India |
8 | Kanopus-V | Dec 27th, 2018 | Soyuz-2 | GK Launch Russia |
4 | MicroSat-R | Jan 24th, 2019 | PSLV-C44 | ISRO India |
8 | Meteor-M 2-2 | Jul 5th, 2019 | Soyuz-2 | GK Launch Russia |
4 | RiSAT-2BR1 | Dec 11th, 2019 | PSLV-C48 | ISRO India |
8 | VV16 | Sep 2nd, 2020 | Vega | Arianespace |
4 | Gonets-Mx | Sep 28th, 2020 | Soyuz-2 | GK Launch Russia |
2 | May 11th, 2020 | ISS | ||
4 | EOS-1 | Jul 11th, 2020 | PSLV-C49 | ISRO India |
8 | Transporter-1 | Jan 24th, 2021 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
2 | VV18 | Apr 29th, 2021 | Vega | Arianespace FG |
5 | Transporter-2 | Jun 30th, 2021 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
4 | Transporter-3 | Apr 1st, 2022 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
5 | Transporter-5 | May 25th, 2022 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
6 | Transporter-6 | Jan 3rd, 2023 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
3 | Transporter-8 | Jun 12th, 2023 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
3 | ‘Baby-Come-Back’ | July 18th, 2023 | Electron | Rocket Lab NZ |
8 | Transporter-9 | Nov 11th, 2023 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
4 | ‘Four-Of-A-Kind’ | Jan 18th, 2024 | Electron | Rocket Lab NZ |
2 | Transporter-10 | Mar 4th, 2024 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
Hubble-1 | Transporter-10 | Mar 4th, 2024 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
Hubble-2 | Transporter-10 | Mar 4th, 2024 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
4 | Transporter-11 | Aug 16th, 2024 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
Hubble-3 | Transporter-11 | Aug 16th, 2024 | Falcon 9 | SpaceX USA |
In November 2021 the company signed an agreement with CubeSat satellite launch deployer NanoRacks for the deployment of two 0.3U CubeSat satellites in what was to become “the first U.S. Commercial Satellite Deployment from the International Space Station (ISS). The satellite, named FEES2 (Flexible Experimental Embedded Satellite-2), was developed by the Italian company GP Advanced Projects and is approximately the thickness of a cherry. It will be one of the smallest trackable objects deployed directly from ISS.
In late November 2021, Spire acquired exactEarth, Ltd, a leading provider of global maritime vessel data for ship tracking and maritime situational awareness solutions. After the merger, exactEarth will be fully owned by Spire and will become a subsidiary operating from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
On June 28th, 2023 the company announced an extended partnership with satellite operator OroraTech from Germany. The objective of this collaboration is to jointly develop, launch, and operate a constellation of eight satellites exclusively designed for global temperature monitoring. This groundbreaking initiative aims to establish one of the earliest and most extensive constellations dedicated to the tracking and monitoring of wildfires worldwide. Once deployed and fully operational, this constellation will play a pivotal role in enhancing our ability to observe and respond to wildfires on a global scale.
In February 2025 the Canadian Space Agency awarded Spire Global Canada and OroraTech a 50 million USD contract to design and develop a dedicated satellite constellation to monitor wildfires in Canada. This project is part of the WildFireSat mission to enhance wildfire detection and response. Spire will partner with OroraTech to develop the payloads for the constellation, which is scheduled for launch in 2029. It will operate for at least five years under the management of the Canadian Space Agency.
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Resources
www.spire.com
www.earth.esa.int
www.nanoracks.com
www.space.skyrocket.de
www.businesswire.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.ulalaunch.com
www.spaceflightnow.com
www.arianespace
www.isro.gov.in
www.spacex.com
www.spacewatch.global edition September 15th, 2021
www.exactearth.com
www.rocketlabusa.com
www.gklaunch.ru
www.satellitetoday.com edition June 29th, 2023
www.satellitetoday.com edition February 7th, 2025