Preeminent commercial space launch rideshare company SEOPS Space has added a previously unplanned second Waymaker flight for 2028, as demand for their satellite mission services has already pushed the company’s inaugural flight to 90% payload capacity.
The company said both missions, Waymaker-1 and Waymaker-2, are planned for a 2028 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket, once again demonstrating their team’s ability to successfully guide Low Earth Orbit (LEO) commercial space launch missions from planning to deployment on predictable schedules, with flexible integration options, and with “greater mission assurance” not found with traditional shared launch opportunities.
Waymaker-2 Mission Expands Commercial Space Launch Opportunities
In an email to The Debrief, a SEOPS company spokesperson explained that the LEO commercial space launch market has entered a new phase, where companies searching for private launch options are running into availability issues.
“For years, satellite operators relied on a relatively small number of rideshare missions that generally matched the pace of spacecraft development,” the company told The Debrief. “Today, advances in spacecraft technology, increasing mission reliability, and accelerating demand across commercial constellations, national security, technology demonstration, and research missions have shortened development timelines while increasing competition for launch opportunities.”
The result of this commercial space launch ‘backlog’ is a competition for launch slots three to four years before the launch date. SEOPS President Evan Hoyt said his company has seen this “exceptionally strong demand” for rideshare slots firsthand. However, the SEOPS leader also noted that planning so far ahead is not always viable for companies looking to place valuable assets in LEO in a timely fashion.
“Customers are looking for more opportunities to launch while maintaining the flexibility to support a wide range of spacecraft and mission profiles,” Hoyt explained.
According to the company’s spokesperson, this increased flexibility includes customers gaining access to rideshare missions “designed to better align with their schedule, technical requirements, and mission objectives.” This demand led to the addition of Waymaker-2.
Waymaker Missions Lay the Groundwork for Future GTO Missions
According to the publicly available SEOPS launch schedule, the inaugural Waymaker-1 mission is slated for launch sometime in early 2028. When asked whether the mission had a single dedicated profile, such as communication or science satellites, the company said it represents the wide variety of customers SEOPS can and does serve.
“Our first Waymaker mission is shaping up to be much like most of our rideshare missions — a variety of diverse payloads across the commercial, science/education, and defense/security sectors, from organizations all around the world,” the spokesperson explained.
The newly added Waymaker-2 mission is slated for launch sometime in the latter part of 2028. A more formal schedule is expected as the recently opened slots begin to rapidly fill up.
When discussing the addition of Waymaker-2, Hoyt said the new mission “allows us to respond to that demand today while continuing to evaluate the right timing for our future GTO offerings.”
Unlike LEO missions, Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) missions place satellites and spacecraft in a highly elliptical temporary orbit, then allow them to drift into a geosynchronous (GEO) orbit for long-term use. Adding the ability to achieve GTO launches will provide the company with access to an entirely new customer base, including science and defense applications that require placement in the more challenging orbit.
Waymaker is New, but “SEOPS is Not”
When asked about the commercial space launch program’s track record, the SEOPS noted that Waymaker is new, but “SEOPS is not”
“For more than a decade, the team has supported complex commercial, civil, and national security missions across every phase of the launch lifecycle—from early mission planning and spacecraft design through launch procurement, payload integration, and deployment,” they explained.
To demonstrate the approach’s viability, the company pointed The Debrief to two recent missions in which the SEOPS team developed the hardware, managed multi-customer rideshare campaigns, and helped “establish many of the operational practices that enable today’s commercial rideshare ecosystem.” This included managing the SpaceX buys, managing mission payloads, and integrating the payloads “oftentimes using its own hardware” to successfully launch the vehicle.
“As a result, we had 100% successful deployments,” the spokesperson explained.
Building the ‘Access Layer’ to Space
When The Debrief asked about the most critical component of the added Waymaker mission and its overall approach, the company said SEOPS “isn’t simply building rideshare missions—it’s building the Access Layer for space.”
“That means creating the commercial, technical, and operational ecosystem that connects spacecraft developers with the right path to orbit,” they explained. “It brings together launch procurement, mission management, payload integration facilities and services, deployment infrastructure, and the intelligent operational tools needed to continuously plan, coordinate, and execute missions across multiple launch providers.”
The company also pointed out that this isn’t just another launch update. Instead, they said, it is another signal that companies looking to place valuable assets in space promptly are facing a marketplace where “rideshare capacity is outpacing supply.” As a result, SEOPS is investing in Waymaker to advance “launch capacity, infrastructure, and operational capabilities required to meet that demand at scale.”
“SEOPS has been building toward a future where launch access is managed as a scalable program – an operating layer, not just as a transaction,” the company CEO recently said. “Programs such as Waymaker are designed to deliver rideshare capacity in the face of rapidly increasing demand. We’re pleased to be working with SpaceX and mission partners to bring these programs to market at a critical time for the industry.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org