ExoAnalytic Solutions and NorthStar Earth & Space Expand Collaboration to Protect Satellites

April 29, 2021

In response to the increasing threat of congestion and space debris in Earth's orbit, NorthStar Earth & Space of Montreal, Quebec, and ExoAnalytic Solutions of Foothill Ranch, California, will expand their strategic collaboration agreement to deliver precision Space Situational Awareness (SSA) services to protect the global satellite community from collisions and ensure safe access to space. The announcement was made today during the 2021 Military Space Situational Awareness Conference.

Furthering a relationship established in 2019, data from ExoAnalytic's comprehensive global telescope network of more than 300 ground-based sensors will combine with data gathered by sensors deployed on NorthStar's satellite constellations, enabling the delivery of space situational awareness information services of unique dimension, precision, and timeliness.

"The New Space Economy depends on the safety and sustainability of the space environment. This demands collaboration between trusted partners and nations to protect continuous access to space and the services rendered to humanity," said Stewart Bain, CEO of NorthStar Earth & Space. "NorthStar's continued collaboration with ExoAnalytic Solutions demonstrate a strong US – Canada commercial effort to contribute precise real-time services to address the biggest challenges we are facing in space today."

Commercial space is headed to a forecasted $2.7 trillion industry. New satellites and planned megaconstellations are launching into an environment congested with traffic and space debris. Increased risk must be mitigated with better SSA services.  NorthStar's Skylark constellation and ExoAnalytic's established SSA network combine the best of space-based and ground-based services to ensure the safety of spaceflight.

"Addressing the mounting needs of the increasingly diverse and dynamic space traffic environment requires a data-driven approach," said Dr. Doug Hendrix, CEO of ExoAnalytic Solutions. "Decision making based on sparse data and human-intensive processes is not a strategy for effective flight safety. This year has seen a marked increase in the number of active satellites along with an increase in publicized reports of close approaches. There is also currently a lack of agreement on the quantitative assessments of these publicly-reported close approaches. More timely and more accurate information is required to enable effective and safe satellite operations in this evolving traffic environment. This expanded strategic collaboration agreement represents our mutual commitment to enabling more accurate and timely decision making."

ExoAnalytic Solutions was designed from the ground up to provide traditional defense contractor services with exceptional compliance, accountability, security and quality—and to do so with the speed and innovation of a Silicon Valley tech startup. Founded in 2008 by three career physicists, the company's earliest employees and executives were chosen for their commitment to technical excellence.  Now recognized throughout the industry as a technology disruptor, ExoAnalytic Solutions is a research and development powerhouse that has a successful record of guiding products from paper to operational fielding.

Starting in 2023, NorthStar will begin operation of Skylark, its debut constellation for SSA services, to enable the delivery of near real-time high fidelity tracking services, elevating traditional SSA to the level of Space Information & Intelligence (SI2). With a comprehensive view of all near-earth orbits, Skylark's space-based sensors will deliver precise observations of more space objects than any current system with higher revisit frequency per object. The result is unprecedented coverage, custody and enhanced predictive capabilities. NorthStar's investors comprise a global coalition of strategic partners, including Telesystem Space (a co-enterprise of the Sirois family office, Telesystem and the Roger's Family Trust of Canada), the Space Alliance (Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio) of Europe, KinetX (USA), the Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada.