City Labs announced that its BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) satellite, which the company called the world’s first commercial nuclear-powered satellite and first nuclear CubeSat, has been officially manifested aboard SpaceX Transporter-17, a rideshare mission launched this week.
The BOHR mission demonstrates City Labs’ proprietary NanoTritium betavoltaic technology in orbit as a dedicated payload power source, providing continuous, long-duration electrical power independent of solar energy. This milestone establishes a new class of spacecraft capabilities, enabling persistent operation of critical subsystems where traditional power systems fall short. This includes deep space, permanently shadowed lunar regions, and long-duration autonomous sensor networks.
The BOHR spacecraft utilizes conventional solar power for satellite bus operations, while the NanoTritium system is used to power and validate the payload demonstration.
“This is a historic step for commercial nuclear power in space,” said City Labs CEO Peter Cabauy in a statement. “BOHR demonstrates that safe, compact, and regulatory-approved nuclear power systems are ready for routine commercial deployment. This capability enables persistent, always-on payload operations that are not constrained by sunlight or battery life.”
City Labs
As NASA’s Artemis program pushes human presence back to the Moon and commercial operators seek long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit, the demand for power systems that operate independent of sunlight is growing. City Labs’ BOHR arrives as the first commercial answer to that challenge.
In another first, the BOHR spacecraft is the first commercial nuclear mission to exercise the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pathway for nuclear launch approval as laid out in National Security Presidential Memorandum-20. The launch safety analysis was prepared by City Labs with technical leadership from Kevin Makinson and independently reviewed, validated, and supported in regulatory engagement by Sandia National Laboratories, a trusted authority in U.S. nuclear launch authorization.
On September 30, 2025, the FAA issued its affirmative payload authorization for the BOHR mission, marking a key regulatory milestone for the commercial use of nuclear materials in spaceflight.
City Labs’ tritium-based power systems operate at extremely low radiation levels and are engineered for safe handling, transportation, and integration within standard commercial launch environments. The BOHR mission serves as a pathfinder for future nuclear-powered spacecraft supporting both civil and national security missions.
