Peering satellites

Far above the Earth’s surface, around the commercial satellites that form the backbone of global communications, a disturbing number of foreign satellites are cozying up to Western operations. 

Commercial satellite services and their data are critical, and the worrying trend has spurred an Australian startup to raise $12 million in funding to find out who is watching the watchers. 

Most cameras circling in outer space point towards Earth. However, Sydney-based HEO Robotics installs spying cameras on satellites, helping minimise collisions, assist with maintenance, and look at who else is watching – and why. 

The versatile software platform has shown promise for commercial, governmental, and military applications and was notably backed by Salus Ventures, a fund focused on building Australia’s hi-tech sovereign defences. 

Unlike most startups in the tech space, HEO was already on the trail to becoming cash-positive and could have happily kept on pace, making around $3 million in yearly revenue from high-paying customers. 

But those customers wanted to know why their satellites were repeatedly being infringed upon and for the first time since 2021, when HEO brought in $3 million from startup accelerator Y Combinator, a YouTube co-founder, and contributions from family and friends, it needed a capital raise. 

The foreign satellites were passing within tens of kilometres, enough to feel their breath in human terms, and there was no explanation as to why they should be so close. 

“A lot of commercial satellites are being approached by satellites from other nations, and we’re not confident that they’re just passing by,” HEO co-founder and Chief Executive Dr William Crowe told the Financial Review. 

“We don’t know what they’re doing, and that’s a problem. We’re all trying to understand their intentions because it could be a security risk. Many of our data is passing through these satellites.” 

And given that the space-borne assets are hovering over 35,000 kilometres above the Earth, it requires a long reach to determine what interlopers might be up to. 

“It could be robot arms to interfere with other satellites, they might be intercepting data or preparing to use lasers to jam the commercial satellites’ signals, or indeed they might be doing nothing – and it makes it very expensive to get cameras up there to look,” Dr Crowe said. 

“I would say that the majority of the time, there’s probably no harm being caused, but the fact is that we don’t know.” 

Dr Crowe refused to say what nations he believed were probing the assets of a commercial satellite industry, which in 2022 generated $US281 billion for a global space industry expected to reach a trillion dollars in revenue by 2040. Still, it is easy to make an educated guess. 

While Russia continues launching U.S. astronauts through a no-funds-exchanged agreement with NASA, U.K. and E.U. sanctions in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, have prevented the export of a wide range of space technology to Russia – effectively crippling their industry. 

The European Space Agency terminated a Mars exploration partnership with Moscow after the invasion, and companies in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other Western-aligned nations swiftly moved their satellites off Russian rockets and onto alternative launchers in SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and India. 

In April, Russia had its first liftoff since the invasion. The launch carried satellites with commercial technology from Western companies and smaller ones from Russian companies and universities. The launch had additional payloads from Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia. Belarus is closely aligned with Russia, but the other two nations were alarming. 

“What surprised me about the others is they both have commercial elements with ties to the West,” Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, a satellite industry analytics and advisory firm, said. 

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite system has seen successful use in the Ukrainian war and Chinese military researchers are concerned that commercial satellites pose a significant security risk. They have urged Beijing to expedite the deployment of a national satellite network to compete. 

A mega-constellation of 13,000 low-orbit satellites is being planned, and there are concerns that military scientists are looking for ways to suppress or damage Musk’s Starlink in a wartime scenario. 

Both powers have historically dismissed allegations of infiltrating Western space systems. Still, US intelligence is warning its stateside industry of a growing risk of espionage and satellite attacks from its adversaries. 

Last week, a bulletin jointly released by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI, and the U.S. Air Force advised companies to log anomalies, establish a program to hunt out moles and be wary of outreaches from foreign companies. 

Satellite licensing laws which previously prevented US companies from pointing cameras where HEO points their own had given the Australian company something of a monopoly in the sector. 

But as the US government moves on repealing those laws and keeping its massive space industry ahead of the pack, it isn’t a concern for HEO, but instead opens the hatch for the Sydney startup to be a greater part of a massive commercial outreach into outer space. 

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