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Militaries routinely send satellites to fly by rival vehicles and suss out their capabilities, but scaling up this kind of reconnaissance is increasingly seen by the U.S. military as a challenge best handled by the private sector.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why two space startups, True Anomaly and Rocket Lab, completed a rendezvous mission for the U.S. Space Force last week so complex, it was like something out of \u201cTop Gun.\u201d Their two rival satellites met up in orbit, close enough for one to capture imagery of the other.<\/p>\n
The exercise, dubbed Victus Haze, demonstrated the close inspection of a space vehicle soon after it arrived in orbit, a necessity in a world where the U.S., Russia, and China are deploying novel space weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina and Russia launch capabilities to space on a regular basis, and part of the Space Force\u2019s job is to understand what those capabilities are,\u201d True Anomaly<\/a> CEO Even Rogers, a veteran<\/a> of the U.S. military\u2019s space efforts, told TechCrunch. \u201cRight now we have gaps in our collection capability.\u201d<\/p>\n The June mission saw Rocket Lab<\/a>, a rocket-building rival to SpaceX that recently announced its acquisition<\/a> of Iridium, launch a spacecraft called Puma just 16 hours and 42 minutes after receiving notice, which is notable because most rocket launches are buttoned up months in advance.<\/p>\n A Jackal spacecraft built by True Anomaly was waiting in orbit to intercept it. As part of the exercise, the company didn\u2019t know where Puma would arrive in space but used onboard sensors to find and identify its target from 2,000 kilometers away. The Jackal then flew close to the target \u2014 exactly how close is classified \u2014 and orbited it, capturing imagery of different parts of the vehicle, before returning to its starting point in orbit.<\/p>\n True Anomaly\u2019s CEO said that, outside of NASA and Space Force space flight missions with humans, \u201cthis is probably the most complex rendezvous and proximity operation between two spacecraft in modern history.\u201d<\/p>\n Bringing together two spacecraft in orbit, where they\u2019re both moving at speeds approaching 17,500 mph, is no easy feat. Previous private demonstrations, like those performed by Northrop Grumman\u2019s maintenance satellites or Astroscale\u2019s orbital garbage hunting<\/a> missions, operate on slower time frames.<\/p>\n And now things get interesting: The two companies are prepared to perform new exercises in the weeks ahead with increasing difficulty, which could include Rocket Lab\u2019s Puma trying to evade True Anomaly\u2019s Jackal and performing its own inspection maneuvers.<\/p>\n Founded in 2022 by Rogers and a cadre of former military space experts, True Anomaly planned to build both the hardware and software to enable the new tasks assigned to the U.S. Space Force when it was created in 2019. After several years of development missions, last month\u2019s demonstration has begun to realize that vision.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the secret sauce of this company,\u201d said Seth Winterroth, a partner at Eclipse Ventures who sits on True Anomaly\u2019s board. \u201cIt\u2019s not one spacecraft architecture or one piece of software or a certain set of payloads \u2014 it\u2019s a deep, deep understanding of what tactics and doctrine look like in this domain.\u201d<\/p>\n True Anomaly has raised just over $1 billion, including a $650 million round in March. Now the company will look to compete for a number of task orders, particularly in the Space Force\u2019s $6.2 billion Andromeda program, which looks to the private sector for exactly this kind of maneuverable reconnaissance.<\/p>\n \u201cFlight heritage is everything, and demonstrated capability is what speaks the loudest with these opportunities,\u201d Rogers said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n