Atlas Cup Launches World’s First Professional Orbital Motorsport

Atlas Cup—the world’s first professional sports league to operate in space—announced today that its inaugural championship will take place in 2028. Founded in late 2025, Atlas Cup is a premier professional sports and media company fielding teams of autonomous spacecraft in what it calls “the fastest sport in history.” Blending the legacy of iconic racing series like Formula 1 and the America’s Cup with cutting-edge space technology, Atlas Cup introduces “orbital motorsport” as a thrilling new genre designed to captivate global audiences and firmly anchor competitive sport in the 21st century.

“Atlas Cup will do for the space industry what professional motorsport did for the automotive industry,” said Philip Hover-Smoot, CEO of Atlas Cup. “It’s time for space to once again become a source of inspiration. Atlas Cup aims to capture the extraordinary potential of space and deliver it to audiences around the world.”

Orbital motorsport emerges at a pivotal moment of structural transformation. Much like the early days of the automobile industry, the rapid expansion of the New Space economy presents immense opportunity—but also challenges. As the commercial space sector grows, operators face a fragmented ecosystem of suppliers with limited objective performance data. Atlas Cup addresses this by introducing direct competition as both spectacle and instrument: generating an unparalleled dataset on spacecraft and component performance while delivering edge-of-your-seat entertainment.

Global sports media is also undergoing rapid evolution. Next-generation engagement models and cord-cutting trends are straining traditional formats, creating sustained demand for premium, immersive content. Atlas Cup is uniquely positioned to lead in this new landscape. Orbital racing simultaneously responds to both trends—celebrating the pioneers of the New Space economy while delivering awe-inspiring, social-, mobile-, and streaming-native sports content unlike anything seen before.

Built on proven technologies and powered by a partnership model that externalizes legacy technical and regulatory risks, Atlas Cup is carving out an entirely new frontier in global sport.

“How do you know your system is the best?” added Hover-Smoot. “You win—in orbit. Head-to-head racing in space, for the first time ever. But when we combine epic space visuals with the magic of racing, we create something truly special.”

Source: Atlas Cup, Inc.