YAM 3, 5, 6, 7

YAM 3 [Loft Orbital]

YAM (Yet Another Mission) is a series of micro satellites owned by Loft Orbital, which host various payloads for different customers.

The satellite consists of a standardized bus provided by LeoStella and Loft Orbital's payload hub, which houses the customer's payloads and provides power, data, mechanical, and thermal interfaces to the payloads and on-board data processing.

Beginning with 2021, quarterly missions are planned.

YAM 3 was launched in June 2020. Following payloads are known so far:

• Eutelsat: ELO 2 Internet-of-Things RF payload
• SDA: POET (originally developped by DARPA as Sagittarius A*), a demonstration of the Blackjack Pit Boss mission system consisting of two payloads. One is the flight computer that runs the SSCI autonomy software. The second is a commercial optical imaging sensor that will search for targets in the open ocean. The data will be fed to the flight computer for on-board analysis and processing. The Pit Boss’ artificial intelligence will process the data and retask the satellite as it searches for targets.
• Another RGB imaging sensor

YAM 5 was launched in January 2023. Following payloads are known so far:

• The MURI-FD (Multiband Uncooled Radiometer Imager - Flight Demonstration) two-band longwave infrared (10.8 µm and 12.0 µm) radiometric imager that utilizes an uncooled focal plane array, developed by Leonardo DRS with support from NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office.
• A customer furnished flight computer
• A sensing payload
• An experimental S-band payload transmitting in the 2240-2290 MHz band and receiving in the 2067-2110 MHz band.
• An S-band Internet-of-Things (IoT) payload that transmits and receives in the 2400-2483.5 MHz band

YAM 6 will be launched in October 2023. Following payloads are on board:

• A hyperspectral imager
• A multi-spectral imager