What is a hosted payload?
A hosted payload is an instrument or package of equipment, such as a sensor, communications unit or computer, that is integrated onto a host satellite. It uses the host's power, communications and other resources instead of flying on its own spacecraft.
Also known as: commercially hosted payload
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How does a hosted payload work?
A hosted payload shares a satellite instead of flying on its own. In a 2018 report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) gives the Department of Defense's definition. Under that definition, a hosted payload is an instrument or package of equipment, such as a sensor or a communications package. The definition says it is integrated onto a host satellite and operates in orbit using the host's available resources, including size, weight, power or communications. The payload launches with its host. The alternative is a free-flying satellite. That is a standalone spacecraft whose owner pays all the costs of development, integration, launch and operations.
GAO lists the possible benefits. The payload's owner pays for only a portion of the satellite and of the shared launch and ground systems. Commercial satellites tend to take less time from concept to launch than Defense Department systems, it says. It also lists the limits. The payload must fit the size, weight and power the host can spare, and the two schedules must line up. GAO also describes Air Force guidance. Its principal guideline is that a hosted payload must "do no harm" to its host's mission.
Who uses hosted payloads?
Government agencies are among the users. GAO found that the Defense Department had used three commercially hosted payloads between 2009 and its July 2018 report. It also listed NASA's TEMPO air pollution instrument as a payload to be hosted on a commercial satellite. TEMPO launched on April 7, 2023 as a payload on the satellite Intelsat 40E.
Companies use the arrangement too. Sidus Space said on September 28, 2026 that its LizzieSat-4 satellite, then in production, would carry hosted payloads from three companies.
How do hosted payloads relate to computing in orbit?
The same model is being applied to processors. Kepler Communications operates laser relay satellites. It said in April 2025 that customers could lease or purchase computing hardware on board its satellites. It also said Axiom Space had purchased the first two such computing payloads for its orbital data center business. In August 2026, Kepler said its constellation lets hosted payload customers deploy sensors and applications with integrated connectivity and onboard computing.
For the buyer, the logic is the cost sharing GAO described. Hardware reaches orbit without the buyer paying for an entire satellite.
Sources
- Military Space Systems: DOD's Use of Commercial Satellites to Host Defense Payloads Would Benefit from Centralizing Data (GAO-18-493), U.S. Government Accountability Office
- NASA’s High-Resolution Air Quality Control Instrument Launches, NASA
- Sidus Space to Launch LizzieSat-4 and LizzieSat-5 Together on SpaceX Bandwagon-6, Sidus Space
- Kepler Announces On-Orbit Compute Capacity on Optical Data Relay Network, Kepler Communications
- Kepler Delivers Optical Infrastructure for Real-Time Space Operations, Kepler Communications
