Abu Dhabi's Orbitworks puts first homegrown satellite Altair-1 in orbit

On October 1, 2026, Altair-1 — built by Abu Dhabi startup Orbitworks — launched aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare and began commissioning in sun-synchronous orbit. It is the first of ten satellites in the Altair constellation, which carries Nvidia GPUs for in-orbit inference; France's CNES has reserved capacity across all ten spacecraft.

• Altair-1 launched October 1, 2026, on Transporter-18 from Vandenberg
• The 10-satellite Altair constellation is targeted for completion by late 2027
• Each satellite carries Nvidia GPUs and five sensor types, including SWIR and hyperspectral
• CNES reserved capacity across all ten satellites before commissioning finished