HEO Buys Satellogic’s In-Orbit Sat

Why build a new satellite, when you can buy one already in orbit? 

At least, that was the mentality of officials at HEO, an Australian non-Earth imaging (NEI) startup that announced the purchase of Satellogic’s NewSat-34 yesterday.

The move is a new take on sovereignty. While other national organizations have invested in developing and building new sovereign remote sensing capabilities from scratch, Australia has gained immediate access to sub-meter resolution imagery with the shake of a hand.

“This is the fastest path to sovereign space capability,” Luciano Giesso, VP of space systems at Satellogic, said in a statement. “Ownership delivers full priority and capacity for mission execution, enabling higher cadence and availability than is possible through shared or third-party access.”

New management: NewSat-34—renamed Continuum-1—will immediately extend HEO’s NEI capacity for applications such as imaging spacecraft. The satellite will also act as a testbed for future R&D.

Typically, HEO captures NEI images using EO sats from partner companies during downtime, when they’re flying over the ocean for example. With control over a satellite of its own, HEO can maneuver at will, and quickly test its NEI methods—with the idea of deploying new, demonstrated maneuvers on partner sats in the future. 

HEO said in a statement that it plans to use the new satellite to test new image acquisition modes, expand its satellite imagery catalog, and accelerate improvements in its autonomous NEI systems. The company also plans to demonstrate an RPO maneuver to image another sat in orbit, according to CEO Will Crowe. 

HEO’s new sat will also be used as a platform for “domestic innovation,” and Crowe told Payload the company is forming agreements with Australian organizations to utilize the sat for things like wildfire monitoring and maritime awareness. 

Seller’s market: From Satellogic’s perspective, the sale is a quick way to remove “operational constraint” for customers looking to acquire sovereignty overnight. It’s also a great way to offload a satellite nearing the end of its operational life, according to the press release.

Continuum-1 has about a year of design life left, with the potential for as many as three years before its demise, according to Crowe. 

While HEO declined to disclose the cost of the satellite, Crowe said that it was cheaper and less risky than building and launching one from scratch. The economics of this sale doesn’t change the strategy of the company, however, and HEO still plans to partner with other EO companies wherever possible.