Built to Fly
Twice a Week
Lightning recovers both stages after every flight. The launch tower catches the booster, and the upper stage glides home under a steerable parafoil, hooks an arresting cable and drops into a net. With nothing thrown away, the cost of a flight is mostly propellant, inspection and labor.
Price a MissionLightning Targets
To LEO, Single Satellite (2,500 kg Full Rack)
Target Price
Flight Cadence Target
Pad Turn Target
How the Cadence Works
Two pads share one hangar. While one vehicle flies, the other is being inspected, refuelled and integrated with the next payload, so each pad turns around in 48 hours. Lightning flies every Tuesday and Thursday. Most flights go to Low Earth Orbit, and one in every four to five goes to Sun-Synchronous Orbit.
That cadence is what makes responsive launch possible: a satellite can go up close to when it is ready, and a lost one can be replaced in days instead of waiting months for a ride.
Spark, our Phase 2 demonstrator, proves the tower catch and arena landing first at a 100 kg payload scale, on 9 + 3 Firebird engines.
Meet SparkPrice a Mission
Shared flights use Lightning's target price of $5,000 per kilogram to Low Earth Orbit, with a 50 kg minimum per customer and up to 2,450 kg per customer. Heavier payloads, single satellites and custom orbits buy the whole vehicle at a flat $13.75 million per flight. Sun-synchronous flights carry up to 1,250 kg shared at about $9,167 per kilogram, or up to 1,500 kg as a whole vehicle at the same $13.75 million. Include your Fly or Dragonfly Adapter in the mass; adapters are priced separately. Lightning is in development, so this is not a quote or a reservation. Full details are in the Lightning Payload User's Guide (PDF).
Who We
Fly For
Constellation operators, defense programs and research teams each need something different from a launch. See what Lightning offers each of them.
Who We Fly For