NAOS – National Advanced Optical System

On August 26th, 2025, Exolaunch successfully deployed six satellites for Capella Space, Pixxel, and a U.S. commercial customer aboard SpaceX's NAOS rideshare mission, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA. NAOS is part of Luxembourg's dual-use governmental observation satellite system, LUXEOSys.

This mission demonstrated Exolaunch's role in advancing leading Earth observation constellations and supporting its customers at every stage of growth:

• Capella Space – second launch with Exolaunch, following the Acadia-5 SAR satellite on SpaceX's Transporter-11;

• Pixxel – three new Firefly hyperspectral imaging satellites deployed, adding to four previously launched with Exolaunch;

• Undisclosed U.S. commercial customer – two satellites deployed through Exolaunch's deployment and integration services.

For this mission, Exolaunch provided its flight-proven hardware portfolio, including CarboNIX separation rings.

With NAOS, Exolaunch expanded its track record to 39 missions and over 580 satellites deployed worldwide, reinforcing its position as the only launch integrator with payloads manifested on every SpaceX Transporter mission since the program began in 2020.

• Mission

  NAOS (National Advanced Optical System)

• Launch vehicle

  Falcon 9

• 6 smallsats

  Deployed via Exolaunch's CarboNIX separation systems

• Customers

  Capella Space, Pixxel, undisclosed U.S. commercial customer

• Launch site

  Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA

• Launch date

  August 2025