Marlan Space and Loft Orbital plan $1 billion, 50-satellite AI constellation

A consortium led by Abu Dhabi-based Marlan Space and France-anchored Loft Orbital plans to invest $1 billion in the Altair-Next Gen Earth observation program. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the program at the International Space Summit in Paris, according to TechRadar.

The plan would expand the Altair constellation from 10 satellites to 50. The satellites, produced by Orbitworks at a facility in Abu Dhabi, are designed to carry radar, optical and other sensors and analyze collected data in orbit. The partners say this could enable alerts within seconds, instead of sending raw imagery to Earth for processing that can take hours.

French AI company Mistral is set to provide onboard models and power services in an AI application store. Customers would be able to choose which models run on shared spacecraft and export data to external models if needed. The proposed system is described as an orbital data center with 50 connected compute units.

Loft Orbital co-founder and COO Alex Greenberg told TechRadar Pro that more consortium partners would be announced over time. The source says it is unclear whether the application store would restrict open-source or open-weight models. The partners present the constellation as offering a more continuous capability than conventional approaches, though the program remains a plan.