LeoLabs showed a visualization tool at the 39th Space Symposium that shows satellites known to maneuver frequently in red and additional satellites making frequent or unexpected maneuvers in grey. Credit: LeoLabs
SAN FRANCISCO – LeoLabs will provide space tracking and monitoring, and collision-avoidance services to the U.K. Space Command’s Project Tyche.
Project Tyche, a small satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd scheduled to launch later this summer, is part of the UK Ministry of Defence ISTARI project. ISTARI is a $1 billion program aimed at establishing a constellation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites in low-Earth orbit.
LeoLabs declined to disclose the value of the contract announced July 17 but called it a “first-step” for the company in providing situational awareness in low-Earth orbit for the Ministry of Defence, “where the nature of low-Earth orbital dynamics creates unique complexity,” in a statement to SpaceNews.
Specifically, LeoLabs plans to offer “intuitive, interoperable and integrated” space situational awareness and space domain awareness solutions designed to help UK organizations share information and data among themselves, and eventually with allies.
For example, LeoLabs will provide the UK Space Command with space domain awareness services, including persistent monitoring of selected space-based objects.
“LeoLabs is proud to support the UK Space Command and the UK Ministry of Defence as it takes this significant step towards developing the UK’s first constellation of [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] satellites in Low Earth Orbit,” LeoLabs CEO Tony Frazier said in a statement. “We look forward to acting as a critical mission partner to the UK and its Allies for this and future missions, enabling the continued safety and security of space.”
Through Project Tyche, the Ministry of Defence seeks to learn how to use information gathered in low-Earth orbit for security and dual-use purposes.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Defence awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin and Rhea Group to develop satellite control systems for the ISTARI constellation.
Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco.
Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She…
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