SpaceX Puts First Commercial Nuclear-Powered Satellite Into Orbit

by Aaron Leong — Thursday, July 09, 2026, 11:52 AM EDT

This week, SpaceX’s Transporter-17 rideshare rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carrying 81 payloads into a sun-synchronous orbit. Among them was a softball-sized BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) cubesat, built by Miami-based startup City Labs, the world’s first commercial nuclear-powered satellite.

While governments have used radioisotope plutonium-fueled thermoelectric generators to power deep-space probes for decades, BOHR introduces a big shift in scale, accessibility, and technology. The satellite relies on City Labs' proprietary NanoTritium betavoltaic tech: rather than using fission or capturing heat from heavy radioactive elements, City Labs' nuclear battery leverages tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. As the tritium naturally decays, it emits low-energy beta particles. An integrated semiconductor structure catches these particles, converting their kinetic energy directly into a steady trickle of electrical current.

Because the energy output from this process is measured in nanowatts to microwatts, it is not yet powerful enough to run an entire spacecraft. Consequently, BOHR utilizes conventional solar panels to manage its core housekeeping and satellite bus operations, while the tritium battery is dedicated to powering and validating the internal payload demonstration. Unaffected by extreme cold or total darkness, betavoltaic cells can continuously generate electricity for over 20 years without needing a recharge.

City Labs' new satellite could address a major bottleneck for upcoming space exploration, too. As NASA’s Artemis program prepares for a sustained human presence on the Moon, and private operators look toward to deep space, there is an urgent demand for power systems that do not depend on sunlight, such as that of tritium batteries. Furthermore, tritium emits extremely low radiation levels, making the batteries safe to handle, integrate, and transport within standard commercial launch environments.

The spacecraft is also the first commercial nuclear mission to secure launch clearance through the FAA’s payload authorization pathway (established under National Security Presidential Memorandum-20), which requires a rigorous launch safety assessment. City Labs prepared the analysis with independent validation from Sandia National Laboratories, securing federal approval in September last year.

Supported by funding from the DoD, NASA, and the Air Force Research Laboratory, City Labs plans to collect usable performance data from the orbital payload within weeks.