T+2 Weeks After Launch

Four and a half years ago, AyJay, Topher, and I applied to Y Combinator with the thesis that VLEO represented the next major platform shift for satellites — the key to unlocking 10 cm resolution imagery, previously limited to aircraft, drones, and billion-dollar satellites. Today, Clarity-1 is in orbit, communicating, and now on her way to validate that thesis. In just over 4 years, this Albedo team has designed, built, and launched a high-performance satellite to capture exquisite imagery of Earth. Absolutely wild.

Clarity-1 Progress

Extra Pre-Launch Bedo-Execution ✨

Ever heard the saying "measure twice, cut once"? At Albedo, we like to think of it as "test a thousand times, launch once." While Clarity-1 was awaiting placement on the rocket at Vandenberg, our team didn't just twiddle their thumbs — we fully capitalized on the time. Our Flight Software team delivered a bonus software update to help ensure smooth commissioning, and our GNC team — the space wizards keeping Clarity-1 pointed in the right directions — used the extra time for additional hardware commissioning rehearsals.

After all was said and done, our Mission Ops team was feeling pretty confident heading into launch. It’s also worth mentioning that at most space companies, the Mission Ops teams ≠ Software & Algorithm Development teams.

I guess we’re just built different.

Launch & First Contact Success 🚀 📡

Our crowning achievement, Clarity-1, was poetically stacked atop Transporter-13 like the absolute pioneer it is — the first commercial VLEO satellite, the first to match aircraft/drone resolution from space, and the first dual caketopper to fly on a Transporter mission. Huge shoutout to the SpaceX team for making this happen, allowing our team to keep our streak of “on-budget and on-time” execution. The above photo was the pièce de résistance of getting Clarity to the launchpad.

Launch proceeded without issue, with Clare deploying from the SpaceX rocket at approximately 1:49 am MT. But the real champagne-popping moment came about 3 hours later at 5:11 am MT, when we made successful first contact. See the video below for the real-time vibes.

After establishing comms, we learned that Clare had nailed her autonomous boot-up sequence and rocket separation rate capture, including magnetic field model validation and body rate capture validation. Stuck the landing!

Protect Mode in Hours, Not Days 🕐

To top it off, Clarity-1 also successfully transitioned to Protect Mode just 14 hours after deployment — absolutely demolishing our internal estimate of a few days. This specialized autonomous operating state is similar to a traditional satellite's "safe mode" but includes essential functionality for surviving a challenging VLEO environment.

Shortly after Protect Mode confirmation, we completed initial payload turn-on and checkout, validating thermal balance for both visible and thermal sensors, along with data throughput performance — all critical building blocks for the amazing imagery to come.

The progress to this point proved out numerous in-house developments like our CMG steering law, flight & ground software, custom electronics, novel thermal management system, and more. This is typically where many startups would "call it a day" with their first tech demonstration. But as you know, Clarity-1 is much more than a tech demo — she’s got 22 (and counting!) signed customers ready to use her imagery.

GNC Modes & SpaceDrop Success 🧠 💧

Our team moved onto validating additional GNC modes, including ground track — which is essential for VLEO imaging.

We've also completed our first on-orbit software update, aka SpaceDrop, to Clarity-1. This update increases performance and provides key upgrades to our system for sensor and imagery calibration. On-orbit software upgrades are exceedingly tricky to get right, but Clarity-1 was designed from day one with this capability built in. The team executed this update effortlessly and right on schedule.

What’s next for Clarity-1?

We’ll be continuing with more performance validation and will soon begin our descent down to VLEO. As a pioneer to the self-cleaning orbit of VLEO, it should be pretty obvious that we take space safety and the issue of debris seriously. To be a good steward, Clarity-1 needs to drop closer to our operational altitude before we pop the protective cover off our telescope to starting capturing those sweet 10cm images. Keep your eyes on LinkedIn and X as we traverse through LEO → VLEO, pop our lens cap off, and begin image calibration.

ICYMI

To keep the party going post launch, Topher Haddad flew straight to DC to share the excitement at Manifest Demo Day. Alongside 34 other companies - of which, Albedo was 1 of 2 space companies - we had the incredible opportunity to present to 200 investors, 120 acquisition leaders, 80 warfighters, and 60 primes 🦅🇺🇸🫡

Aaand the launch media tour could not conclude without a stop at startup media’s latest darling, TBPN. As John and Jordi found out, we are quickly selling out of our imaging capacity for the next two years — with the US already sold out. Get in while you can?

Upcoming Events

See the Albedo team, live in the flesh!

Looking Forward

Thank you for following our journey to launch over the past year! Now that Clarity-1 is in orbit, we’ll be transitioning our newsletter frequency to quarterly. We ask that you keep channeling the same energy as Albedo transitions to our post-launch chapter — it’s about to get even more exciting 🫡🖖