The military routinely sends satellites to fly by adversary vehicles and test their capabilities, but scaling up this kind of reconnaissance is seen by the US military as a challenge better handled by the private sector.
That’s why two space startups, True Anomaly and Rocket Lab, completed a joint mission for the US Space Force last week that was so complex it looked like something out of “Top Gun.” Their two rival satellites collided in orbit, close enough for one to take a picture of the other.
The mission, called Victus Haze, featured close-up testing of the spacecraft shortly after reaching orbit, a necessity in a world where the US, Russia, and China are deploying new space weapons.
“China and Russia are constantly introducing space capabilities, and part of the Space Force’s mission is to understand what those capabilities are,” True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers, a veteran of the U.S. military’s space efforts, told TechCrunch. “Right now we have gaps in our ability to collect.”
The June launch saw Rocket Lab, a rocket-making rival to SpaceX that recently announced its purchase of Iridium, launch a spacecraft called Puma just 16 hours and 42 minutes after receiving the notification, which is remarkable because most rocket launches are buttoned up months in advance.
A Jackal spaceship built by the True Anomaly was waiting in orbit to intercept it. As part of the exercise, the company did not know where the Puma would land in space but used onboard sensors to locate and identify its target from a distance of 2,000 kilometers. The Jackal then flew close to the target – exactly how close it was separated – and circled around, taking pictures of different parts of the car, before returning to its starting point on the track.
True Anomaly’s CEO said that, outside of NASA and the Space Force’s human spaceflight journey, “this is probably the most complex mission of close cooperation between two spacecraft in modern history.”
Coupling two spacecraft into orbit, where both are traveling at speeds approaching 17,500 mph, is no easy feat. Previous private demonstrations, such as those made by Northrop Grumman’s maintenance satellites or Astroscale’s orbiting junk-hunting missions, operate at slower times.
And now things are interesting: The two companies are ready to carry out new tests in the coming weeks with increasing difficulty, which may include the Puma of Rocket Lab trying to escape the Jackal of the True Anomaly and performing its experimental tricks.
Founded in 2022 by Rogers and a team of former military space experts, True Anomaly plans to build both hardware and software to enable new tasks assigned to the US Space Force when it is created in 2019. After several years of development work, last month’s demonstration has begun to realize that vision.
“That’s the secret sauce of this company,” said Seth Winterroth, a partner at Eclipse Ventures who sits on True Anomaly’s board. “It’s not the design of a single spacecraft or a piece of software or a particular set of payloads – it’s a deep, deep understanding of what tactics and doctrine look like in this domain.
True Anomaly has raised more than $1 billion, including a $650 million round in March. Now the company will look to compete for more work orders, particularly in the Space Force’s $6.2 billion Andromeda program, which is looking into the private sector for exactly this type of manned exploration.
“The legacy of the aircraft is everything, and the strength that has been demonstrated speaks volumes for these opportunities,” Rogers said.
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