Topher Haddad

Nominal’s software and the team behind it have created immense leverage for our hardware testing & on-orbit data analysis And now even more clutch as we’re scaling up future builds with repeatable processes Big congrats to @Nominal_io & thanks for featuring @Albedo!

Big news… Hoodies are back in stock. Yes — they still glow in the dark. Link in comment👇

We are pleased to announce that Albedo has been awarded a contract for the Missile Defense Agency SHIELD IDIQ with a ceiling of $151B. This contract encompasses a broad range of work areas that allows for the rapid delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter with increased speed and agility. Proximity Drives Performance

Controlling on torque rods ad-hoc is some old school space cowboy stuff. Good on you @TopherHaddad and team.

@pronounced_kyle If you know, you know… Thank you Christian

@TopherHaddad It's always the damn CMGs. Thanks for the write-up, and great job on Mission #1!

YC is the YC for Space Tech

Strove for perfection out of the gate. Even though we didn’t hit every goal - the step change in what we’ve built is incredible

This is what A+ execution in hard tech looks like. The @Albedo team built the highest resolution commercial imaging satellite ever and flew it so low they had to worry about atomic oxygen + atmospheric drag. They built so many ingenious workarounds for FOAK equipment issues, Andy Weir would blush. Unlike SaaS, space is unforgiving. 98% functional is not fixable with your CI/CD system. Just as SpaceX took a few explosions on the launchpad to get to orbit, Albedo's first mission ended similarly in what is, in this world, a massive success. Give this a read and you'll have a new appreciation for how hardcore this team is.

Proliferating VLEO is high-leverage deterrence against these threats Below the belts where radiation gets trapped from a nuke. Drag self-cleans debris.

Love the spirit of this. But it’s not going to move the needle much. Legacy A&D has a systemic limitation to how far their dollar goes, especially with “New”, “Modern”, & “Production” in the same sentence Bet on the new companies, to move the needle

Goals for 2026 - Finish next-gen spacecraft upgrades (built/tested) - New partnerships/sales for VLEO missions over solar min - Skateboard every day

Best 2025 Wrapped goes to @joinrosebud. So insightful Still hoping for one from @DoorDash someday

@MattGialich @llcrabbie Put barton springs at the midpoint of your run pre 9am, it works

@llcrabbie Are you moving @llcrabbie ???? Get that sweet McMansion in a field?

Texas is borderline uninhabitable

C’mon

@adriannorris @LionnetPierre @x4rius High agility (accel & settle) is key for exploiting VLEO Should not assume satellite life differs vs LEO With empirical data sub 400 km, can scale drag models to ~250. Our 12% should hold, & on our way lower now

@LionnetPierre @x4rius Impressively, they found that when their satellite was still >100km above its target altitude... I calculated field of view and revisit frequency from VLEO. It's bad. When combined with the short lifetime, it kills any hope of commercial viability. a2space.com/vleo-reality-c…

After the ’smallsat revolution’ that never happened, the new fad is called VLEO. The problem is that lowering the orbit decreases the productivity of each satellite and adds inefficiencies to global constellations: the lowervthe orbit the more wasted capacity is deployed in orbit

@aaroncbailey @zebulgar @asglidden No salt in VLEO

@zebulgar @asglidden Cc @TopherHaddad

ok if someone pitches me datacenters in space one more time im gonna ask them why there arent datacenters in antartica or underwater first which both seem easier and better than space... and yet...

@MattGialich If there's any precious metals down here, we're gonna find em

@TopherHaddad This is the right orbit. First an only operational VLEO company!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Albedo is going all-in on VLEO systems For years, the space industry has competed on resolution, altitude, and scale — bigger optics, higher orbits, more satellites. But what if the next advantage doesn’t come from going higher, but from getting closer? We started @Albedo to build the next generation of Earth-imaging satellites. What we built to take better pictures became something much bigger: a way to operate reliably in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) — 275 km above Earth, where drag and atomic oxygen used to make long-duration missions impossible. This breakthrough changed our focus. From this point forward, we’re no longer selling commercial imagery. We’re building the infrastructure that makes an entire orbital layer operational and scalable. Our full effort is going into building the systems that make sustained flight in VLEO possible. The economics of getting closer Satellites today operate in three established orbit domains: GEO - Farther MEO - Middle LEO - Closer VLEO is roughly half the altitude of LEO. Getting this close to Earth doesn’t just improve performance; it also changes the economics of space. Satellites in VLEO can: → Capture higher-resolution data with smaller, cheaper payloads → Maintain stronger downlinks and uplinks at lower power → Deliver faster latency for real-time applications → Maneuver dynamically to balance endurance, precision, and autonomy The physics are simple: signal strength ∝ range², and for two-way systems, performance ∝ range⁴. Halving the distance delivers roughly 4× the signal power — or 16× for two-way systems — enabling smaller optics, lower-power transmitters, and lower mass. These efficiencies compound. Smaller spacecraft mean lower build and launch costs, faster iteration, and more frequent refresh cycles — a new economic curve for every market that depends on satellites, with a similar compounding cycle that transformed cloud infrastructure and semiconductors. Clarity’s proof through Solar Max Our first spacecraft, Clarity, has been on orbit for seven months through Solar Max, the most demanding period of the solar cycle. Clarity is performing 12% better than design predictions in drag efficiency, has executed 150 km of controlled maneuvers, and has maintained strong power generation while its solar arrays are exposed to atomic oxygen — a reactive element that corrodes conventional spacecraft materials at hypersonic speed. We’ve also uploaded 12 flight-software updates while in orbit, adding novel control modes and solving issues in real time. Clarity was designed for an average five-year lifespan at ~275 km, proving that long-duration, low-altitude operations are sustainable with the right architecture. VLEO isn’t experimental anymore. It’s operational. Our reliance on satellites requires redundancy LEO is crowded and vulnerable. VLEO offers the opposite: a naturally self-cleaning layer that clears debris in weeks, not years. Everyday life runs on space: ATMs to national security. As launch costs fall and cadence rises, redundancy shouldn’t mean “more LEO” — it means adding a second layer in VLEO. In testimony to Congress last year, John F. Plumb (Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy) warned that a high-altitude nuclear detonation could render LEO unusable for up to a year. Diversifying architectures ensures continuity of communications, intelligence, and warning missions even under extreme conditions. VLEO sits below the radiation belts and in a naturally debris-clearing regime, making rapid reconstitution assured. What’s next for Albedo We’re dedicating our full engineering and operations teams to VLEO systems: buses, integrated satellites, and turnkey missions. These past few years proved the physics. Now we’re scaling the infrastructure that will make VLEO the next productive, sustainable orbit in space. If you believe the next edge in space isn’t higher but closer, please reach out. More to come.

@Cap_Plantain Thanks Cap. We used a mix of both prelaunch. Worth noting that the drag in VLEO is free molecular flow - doesn't behave like a fluid

@TopherHaddad Congratulations on the shift! 12% better on drag is pretty critical in that environment. Are you using high fidelity simulations or simplified models to come up with the preflight prediction?

@ItsShoTimee C'mon!

@TopherHaddad Any plans for hosted payload missions in VLEO?