Space Logistics Companies: Who Moves Cargo in Orbit (2026)

Rockets get satellites to space, but a growing group of space logistics companies handles what happens next: moving spacecraft between orbits, docking with them, extending their lives and delivering cargo. Their vehicles are the trucks, tugs and service vans of the orbital economy.

This guide profiles the leading space logistics companies in 2026, what each one builds, how far they have got, and how to compare them. For the technology behind these vehicles, see our guide to in-space transportation.

What do space logistics companies do?

Space logistics companies move, service and supply spacecraft once they are in orbit. Their main services are:

• Last-mile delivery: carrying satellites from a rocket's drop-off orbit to their final orbits.
• Hosted payloads: carrying experiments and instruments that need a ride and power in orbit, without a satellite of their own.
• Rendezvous and docking: approaching another spacecraft safely, to inspect, move or service it.
• Life extension and in-orbit refuelling: keeping valuable satellites working for longer.
• Fast transfers to high orbits: moving payloads to geosynchronous orbit, the Moon or beyond in days rather than months.
• Disposal: removing dead satellites from busy orbits.

Space logistics companies at a glance

The leading space logistics companies differ mainly in where they operate and what they do when they get there:

Impulse Space

Impulse Space is a California company that builds high-thrust spacecraft to move payloads from low Earth orbit to almost any destination. It was founded in 2021 by Tom Mueller, who led propulsion development at SpaceX for more than a decade.

• Mira: a precision manoeuvring spacecraft that has flown multiple missions, including what Impulse describes as record-setting orbit changes and autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations.
• Helios: a high-energy kick stage scheduled to fly in 2027, designed to carry payloads from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit in less than a day.
• Caravan: a rideshare programme to make higher-energy orbits such as GEO cheaper to reach.

In 2026 Impulse raised a $500 million Series D, later extended to $808 million, and won a US Space Force National Security Space Launch Lane 1 contract, the first awarded to an upper-stage provider as prime. That round valued it at $5.6 billion, among the largest private space companies.

D-Orbit

D-Orbit is an Italian company and one of the most experienced operators of orbital transfer vehicles, using its ION Satellite Carrier. ION rides to orbit on rideshare missions such as SpaceX's Transporter flights, then releases each customer's satellite into its own orbit and hosts payload demonstrations.

By October 2026 D-Orbit had flown 26 commercial ION missions. On Transporter-18 it flew three ION vehicles together for the first time, carrying nearly 1.5 tonnes, and it says the total mass of IONs it has launched since 2020 now exceeds that of all other orbital transfer vehicles worldwide combined.

Portal Space Systems

Portal Space Systems is a spacecraft company in Bothell, Washington, building highly manoeuvrable vehicles that can move quickly between orbits. It emerged from stealth in 2024 and is led by CEO Jeff Thornburg.

• Starburst: a manoeuvrable spacecraft. Starburst-1 launched in October 2026 to demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations and rapid orbit changes.
• Supernova: a larger spacecraft using solar thermal propulsion, in which mirrors focus sunlight to heat propellant, for up to 6 km/s of delta-v across LEO, MEO, GEO and cislunar space.

Portal has booked a dedicated Falcon 9 for Supernova's first flight, the Motus Via Sol mission planned for 2028, and will resell spare capacity to rideshare customers. It has raised more than $75 million, including a $50 million Series A in April 2026, and holds a $45 million US Space Force STRATFI award.

Starfish Space

Starfish Space, based near Seattle, builds Otter, a spacecraft designed to dock with other satellites to inspect them, extend their lives or remove them from orbit. Its first full-scale Otter launched on 1 October 2026.

That first Otter is flying NASA's $15 million SSPICY mission, which from early 2027 will inspect up to four defunct US objects in low Earth orbit without touching them. Starfish has further Otter missions lined up, including satellite disposal for the US Space Development Agency and commercial servicing in geostationary orbit.

Northrop Grumman SpaceLogistics

SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman company, is the only company so far to extend the life of commercial satellites by docking with them in geosynchronous orbit. Its two Mission Extension Vehicles have docked with three communications satellites and provided more than ten years of combined life extension.

Mission Robotic Vehicle

In July 2026 it launched the Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV), which carries two robotic arms developed with DARPA and the US Naval Research Laboratory, along with three Mission Extension Pods, “jetpacks” that attach to ageing satellites. The MRV is itself designed to be refuelled in orbit.

Other companies to know

How to compare space logistics companies

The most useful way to compare space logistics companies is by what their vehicles can actually do in orbit, and how much of that has been proven in flight:

• Delta-v: how much change in velocity the vehicle can deliver, which sets how far it can take a payload.
• Payload capacity: how much mass it can carry, and how many customers it can serve per mission.
• Flight heritage: how many missions have flown and succeeded, as opposed to being planned.
• Docking capability: whether it can attach to other spacecraft, which unlocks servicing, refuelling and disposal.
• Reusability: whether the vehicle can complete several jobs, or is used once.
• Destinations: low Earth orbit only, or also geosynchronous orbit, the Moon and Lagrange points.

Where the industry is heading

Space logistics is moving from single demonstrations to routine, repeatable services. It is still a small part of the $686 billion space economy, but one of the fastest growing (see our analysis of the space logistics market). Several trends are driving this:

• More satellites: with about 17,000 working satellites in orbit, most of them in satellite internet constellations, demand for delivery, servicing and disposal is rising.
• New destinations: crewed commercial space stations and data centres in space will need regular cargo and maintenance.
• Travel beyond Earth orbit: missions to cislunar space and the Lagrange points need high-energy transport.
• Defence demand: governments are paying for spacecraft that can manoeuvre, inspect and respond quickly.
• Standard interfaces: docking and refuelling standards let one servicer work with many clients.

The next step is reusable vehicles that work between platforms rather than flying one mission each. That is the gap Orbit2Orbit's in-space logistics network is designed to fill, with autonomous spacecraft that dock, deliver and redeploy between stations, satellites and orbital platforms.

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