Launch market, brokers & orbital transfer vehicles

Four routes to low Earth orbit#

In the $2013\text{-}2023$ PocketQube census ($77$ spacecraft)[1], picosatellites reached orbit through four distinct deployment routes:

• From a host satellite
• From the launch vehicle
• From an orbital transfer vehicle

Show the data as a table

Category	From a host satellite	From the launch vehicle	From an orbital transfer vehicle	Total
2013	4	0	0	4
2014	0	0	0	0
2015	0	0	0	0
2016	0	0	0	0
2017	0	0	0	0
2018	0	0	0	0
2019	0	6	0	6
2020	0	0	0	0
2021	3	6	0	9
2022	0	30	8	38
2023	0	0	20	20
2024	0	0	0	0
2025	0	9	7	16

1. Host satellite ejection (2013): The first four PocketQubes were carried inside GAUSS Srl's UniSat-5 microsatellite on a Dnepr rocket and ejected in orbit via MRFOD[2].
2. Direct launch-vehicle upper stage (2019–2022): Deployers such as AlbaPod (on Rocket Lab Electron and Falcon 9 Transporter-3) and Libre Space Foundation's PicoBus (on Firefly Alpha) mounted directly to the upper stage or rideshare adapter ring[3][4].
3. Orbital Transfer Vehicles — OTVs (2021–present): Over half of recent PocketQubes fly inside AlbaPods mounted on D-Orbit's ION Satellite Carrier, which separates from Falcon 9 first and then releases individual PocketQubes one by one over days or weeks, easing post-deployment TLE identification[1].
4. Sub-orbital / failed launch attempts: Missions aboard early test flights (such as Firefly Alpha FLTA002 in October 2022, which reached $200\text{-}300\text{km}$ and re-entered within days[5]) highlight launch-vehicle maturity trade-offs.