Overview
As concern about space sustainability advances globally, NorthStar Earth and Space (NorthStar) will soon bring a first-in-class satellite constellation into service that will provide unique insights from tracking where space objects are and how they behave, fueling multiple decisions across safety and security boundaries. This information will improve decision-making for government and commercial space operators and enable decisions by entrepreneurs and regulators for future space missions like satellite servicing and other innovations in the space economy.
Headquartered in Montreal, Canada with subsidiaries in Washington, D.C., and Luxembourg City, NorthStar was conceived from its early beginnings in 2012 as a global company, given widespread interest in leveraging the benefits of the space economy. Aside from those major hubs, NorthStar has raised over $100m in investments from Canadian, European, and U.S. investors, in addition to commercial partnerships that extend the company’s reach to Asia, South Asia, and Australia. NorthStar’s existing business has created high-tech jobs in areas ranging from astrodynamics to satellite design, software engineering, and imagery analysis, to name a few. Its products have been designed for near-term use by government and commercial customers as well as to help drive innovative new capabilities that will be needed as the foundation of the space economy.
NorthStar’s Constellation
As early as January 2024, the first four of a planned 24 NorthStar satellites will fly aboard a Rocket Labs Electron rocket, representing the first-ever SSA-satellite-as-a-service constellation. Starting with this initial flight, NorthStar will enable continuous monitoring of satellites and nearby objects, providing state vectors for early detection and warning of safety- and security-related phenomena.
As NorthStar operates in space, it complements ground based SSA systems and creates additional…
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