Anduril came up with the space surveillance firm ExoAnalytic Solutions

The first step to fighting a war in space is to know what is happening tens of thousands of kilometers above the planet. For that, security technology giant Anduril is buying data warehouse company ExoAnalytic Solutions.

ExoAnalytic operates a network of 400 telescopes around the world, which it uses to track spacecraft in orbits high above the planet. The company’s engineers develop software that converts observations into situational awareness tools for US national security agencies that monitor enemy spacecraft and coordinate American assets in orbit.

“This is a company that we have been working closely with over the last few years on many projects, and they are experts in space awareness and missile defense,” Anduril VP of Engineering Gokul Subramanian told reporters. “We believe that [Department of Defense] it deserves the best catalog of all things happening in space.”

The private companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. Anduril is in the process of raising $4 billion from investors Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, Reuters reported last week.

ExoAnalytics will be directly integrated with Anduril, not run as a separate subsidiary, although Subramanian said it will continue to serve existing and future foreign clients. Currently, Anduril has 120 employees focused on securing the space, a number that will more than double with the addition of ExoAnalytics’ 130 employees.

The company’s technology could help Anduril win government contracts supporting the Golden Dome, a missile defense system that the US Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to build. That system is expected to include thousands of satellites to track and target enemy missiles, and maintaining real-time awareness and communication between them will be a big plus.

Anduril plans to launch three spacecraft this year as internally funded R&D projects that will utilize the capabilities gained from the acquisition. Subramanian said ExoAnalytic’s space data processing expertise will be used in an infrared tracking satellite it plans to launch this year in partnership with Apex Space. The space tracking data will be used for two missions to high orbit that are expected to be launched this year in collaboration with Impulse Space and Argo Space, respectively.

There’s another potential angle to the discovery — the machine vision algorithms ExoAnalytic developed to detect satellites in orbit are also useful for hackers trying to track and engage incoming threats. Anduril received a contract from the Pentagon in late 2025 to begin building a space-based missile interceptor.

ExoAnalytic was founded in 2008 to adapt missile defense sensor technology to track spacecraft in orbit after U.S. military officials called for new and better ways to understand what’s happening in space, CEO Doug Hendrix said in a 2024 interview. The company’s early growth was funded by grants and contracts from the federal government, including $26 million in SBIR grants since 2010.

US Space Force officials have expressed serious concern about Chinese and Russian spacecraft flying in close proximity to American and European satellites, where they could engage or damage the satellite with electronic or other weapons.

“Two years ago, an [U.S. commander in the Pacific told] to me that ships cannot leave the harbor without the protection of the atmosphere layer,” said Subramanian.