YAM-3

YAM-3 (Yet Another Mission 3) is a smallsat operated by Loft Orbital, launched 30 June 2021 on a Falcon 9 Transporter-2 rideshare from Cape Canaveral.^[1] The satellite carries NORAD catalogue number 48915 and orbits in a sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 430 km altitude with 97.7 degree inclination and a 93.0-minute period.^[2]

YAM-3 has an 83 kg bus mass. The catalogue lists the platform as longbow-bus; Loft Orbital's own announcement of YAM-8 identifies YAM-8 as the first mission on the Longbow bus,^[3] while a LeoStella delivery notice covers YAM-3 as a LeoStella-built ESPA-class spacecraft.^[4] The specific LeoStella bus variant (LS-100 or LS-200) has not been specified in publicly available documentation as of May 2026.

The satellite carries three hosted payloads. First, a Eutelsat ELO IoT radio-frequency receiver for narrowband Internet-of-Things connectivity (which of the two ELO instruments, ELO-1 or ELO-2, is hosted on this spacecraft has not been confirmed in public sources as of May 2026). Second, a POET (Pit Boss and Overhead Experiment Technology) demonstration suite comprising a Sagittarius-A* Innoflight processor, a DARPA Blackjack Pit Boss battle management computer, and an SSCI sensor package, sponsored by the Space Development Agency.^[5] Third, an RGB imaging sensor.^[1] YAM-3 remained operational as of May 2026.^[6]