Kayhan Space is proud to have earned the trust of the OSC to perform this crucial task. As the OSC continues its work to stand up the future of commercial space traffic coordination, we are committed to supporting their efforts and helping to create a safer, more secure space environment for all operators.

In accordance with [Space Policy Directive 3 (SPD-3)](https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/space-policy-directive-3-national-space-traffic-management-policy/), the Department of Commerce's [Office of Space Commerce (OSC)](https://www.space.commerce.gov/) has been tasked with taking over responsibility for managing commercial space traffic. This crucial shift transfers commercial space traffic coordination duties from the Department of Defense (DoD) to the OSC, reflecting the growing need to manage the increasing commercial activity in space and ensure a safer space environment.

The OSC is steadily progressing toward the full implementation of the [Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS)](https://www.space.commerce.gov/traffic-coordination-system-for-space/), a platform intended to manage commercial space traffic. TraCSS will provide satellite operators with timely warnings about potential collisions or conjunctions, alerting them up to six times per day to take necessary action. This system will enhance safety for spacecraft in orbit and help sustain the growing commercial use of space.

In its [initial phase](https://www.space.commerce.gov/commerce-departments-new-traffic-coordination-system-for-space-launches-initial-capabilities/), the TraCSS system will utilize data from the existing [DoD High Accuracy Catalog](https://www.space-track.org/). Over time, however, it will start incorporating tracking and ephemeris data from satellite operators, commercial sources, and SSA service providers. This evolution will enable TraCSS to offer more precise and comprehensive tracking of space objects, leveraging cutting-edge commercial SSA technologies to enhance space traffic management.

To ensure the success of this transition, the OSC has conducted two pathfinder programs over the past year: the [LEO Pathfinder](https://www.space.commerce.gov/office-of-space-commerce-initiates-tracss-pathfinder-projects/) and the [Improved Operator-to-Operator Ephemeris Pathfinder](https://www.space.commerce.gov/office-of-space-commerce-announces-new-commercial-pathfinder-project-for-tracss/). These initiatives are designed to evaluate the capabilities of commercial SSA data providers in maintaining a space object catalog, a responsibility traditionally managed by the DoD. Additionally, the pathfinders assess the quality of conjunction alerts generated for spaceflight safety.

Kayhan Space has played a critical role in these pathfinder programs, serving as a Data Quality Monitor (DQM). In this capacity, Kayhan Space acts as an independent evaluator, ensuring that the data being integrated into the TraCSS system from commercial providers meets stringent quality standards. As TraCSS evolves to incorporate data from multiple sources, the role of an impartial third-party evaluator like Kayhan Space becomes increasingly important. Kayhan’s function is to verify that both the incoming data and the SSA-derived products meet the necessary accuracy and reliability requirements.

Throughout the pathfinder efforts, Kayhan Space has collaborated closely with the OSC team and other commercial SSA data providers, offering their expertise to support a successful execution of the TraCSS implementation roadmap. This collaboration demonstrates the essential partnership between government agencies and the private sector in developing the next-generation space traffic management system.

Kayhan Space is proud to have earned the trust of the OSC to perform this crucial task. As the OSC continues its work to stand up the future of commercial space traffic coordination, we are committed to supporting their efforts and helping to create a safer, more secure space environment for all operators.

TraCCS.png

Kayhan Space Selected as Data Quality Monitor for the Office of Space Commerce

Introducing: Satcat — the premiere public spaceflight intelligence exchange, developed by Kayhan Space.

Have you ever wondered where the International Space Station is relative to your location? Are you curious about how many Starlink satellites are currently in orbit? Do you want to access comprehensive space weather forecasts? This information — and much more — is now available in the palm of your hand with <a href="https://www.satcat.com" target="_blank">Satcat.com</a>!

## Space Data for Every User

Satcat is a full-scope spaceflight intelligence exchange that aggregates historical and real-time data for objects and events in Earth’s orbit. Designed to be a resource for users ranging from space-curious individuals to industry experts, Satcat is the premier one-stop platform for researching, analyzing, and referencing space-related data.

While many resources offer a wealth of essential information regarding orbital assets, the industry lacks a platform where information such as active and decayed satellite count, real-time and historical TLE data, space weather forecasts, and more could be found in one comprehensive, public platform. <a href="https://www.satcat.com" target="_blank">Satcat</a> fills this critical gap by unifying this information into a single resource, offering users a streamlined way to easily search, reference, and analyze information relating to objects and activities in Earth’s orbit.


### Live Satellite Tracking & Forecasting
![Sat_1.png](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Sat_1_bfef07c494.png)
With Satcat, users can search and track any active satellite or debris object in real time! Smart Search allows users to look up objects based on their name, NORAD ID, or COSPAR ID, and save them to their favorites list on the platform. Users can also use the <a href="https://www.satcat.com/globe" target="_blank">3D globe view</a> to view all tracked objects circling Earth.

Each tracked object has a reference page that contains information such as its orbit, last TLE update, country of origin, launch date, object type, and historical trends of orbital elements. Users can use this page to track an object's path around the Earth and obtain a 10-day visibility forecast relative to the user's location and historical TLE data up to 4 years prior.


### Database Filtering
![Directory-Advanced Search.png](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Directory_Advanced_Search_3f110bc32c.png)
Satcat's <a href="https://www.satcat.com" target="_blank">Advanced search</a> enables users to explore the platform's database of 60,000+ active satellites, rocket bodies, debris, and decayed objects a step further! Input your desired queries into the filters, and Satcat will quickly generate a list of all objects that match those parameters.


### Analytics Sandbox
![Sandbox.png](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Sandbox_e10f8e2069.png)
For those looking for more advanced analytics tools, <a href="https://www.satcat.com/sandbox" target="_blank">Satcat's Sandbox</a> allows users to quickly analyze satellite orbits and compare primary TLE inputs against up to 10 secondary TLEs in seconds. Satcat's toolkit includes an ever-growing set of astrodynamics tools, such as a TLE visualizer and a multi-format time converter, designed to accelerate astrodynamicists' work. Users are also invited to join the platform’s <a href="https://discord.com/invite/ZnSBqeAAVz" target="_blank">Discord Server</a> to share their findings with the Satcat community, request new features, and receive support.


### Space Weather Overview
![SpaceWeather.png](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Space_Weather_5a55798537.png)
Space weather events can pose a real risk to satellite operations, including equipment damage, orbital anomalies, and communication loss. To give operators and enthusiasts a comprehensive view of orbital activity, Satcat provides current and future forecasts for geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, as well as radio blackouts. <a href="https://www.satcat.com/spaceweather" target="_blank">Satcat’s Space Weather overview</a> uses <a href="https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation" target="_blank">NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center's Space Weather Scales</a> to describe the severity of certain events, as well as visual representations of solar and geomagnetic activity.


### Launch Statistics
![SC6.png](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/SC_6_a3b0da1473.png)
Stay up-to-date with the latest launches from around the world! Satcat's <a href="https://www.satcat.com/launchstats" target="_blank">Launch Stats </a> tool compiles data from <a href="https://thespacedevs.com/" target="_blank">The Space Devs</a> to provide users with a full view of upcoming weekly launches, as well as 30-day visualizations of launched satellites and decayed objects 

## Search Space with Satcat
Kayhan Space is on a mission to make space accessible to everyone, regardless of their level of expertise. Whether you're a satellite operator, astronomer, or simply interested in space, there’s something for you to explore on <a href="https://www.satcat.com" target="_blank">Satcat.com</a>!

**Thank you to the following data providers that have made this possible:**
- TLE Data — <a href="https://www.space-track.org/auth/login" target="_blank">Space-Track</a>
- Launch Vehicle Data — <a href="https://www.planet4589.org/space/gcat/" target="_blank">GCAT / J. McDowell</a>
- Space Weather Data — <a href="https://celestrak.org/SpaceData/SpaceWx-format.php" target="_blank">Celestrak</a>, <a href="https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/" target="_blank">GFZ-Potsdam</a>, <a href="https://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dst_realtime/index.html" target="_blank">Kyoto University</a>, <a href="https://natural-resources.canada.ca/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Canada</a>, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/jun2024f10-prd.txt" target="_blank">NASA</a>, <a href="https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/" target="_blank">NOAA SWPC</a>, and <a href="https://www.sidc.be/SILSO/DATA/SN_d_tot_V2.0.txt" target="_blank">SIDC</a>
- Brightness Magnitude & RSC Values — <a href="https://www.mmccants.org/" target="_blank">Mike McCant</a>
- Launch Data — <a href="https://thespacedevs.com/" target="_blank">The Space Devs</a>

Satcat-Article.png

Introducing: Satcat

Kayhan Space’s autonomous space traffic coordination platform is better than ever with a suite of new improvements!

[Kayhan Space’s autonomous space traffic coordination platform](https://kayhan.space/products/pathfinder) is better than ever with a suite of new improvements!

# Navigating Pathfinder™ 3.1
[Pathfinder**™** 3.1](https://kayhan.space/products/pathfinder) focuses on enhancing and simplifying key areas of satellite operations, offering teams better visibility of their constellations through more flexible and streamlined workflows.

## Heartbeat Notifications Toggle
Operators asked, and we listened! 

The new **Heartbeat Toggle** enables operators to choose how they receive non-critical CDM notifications, opting to receive reports in batches rather than individually.

![heartbeat.png](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/heartbeat_fc28533684.png)

## Screening App Improvements
**Pathfinder™ Screener** continues to be the ideal tool for satellite operators seeking to lower operational workload by reducing the number of future close approaches caused by maneuvers.

With the new design updates, operators can to submit a Primary <> SP Catalog screening job in little as 5 clicks! The <u>fastest time to submit a screening job in the UI is 8.7 seconds</u> — think you can beat it?

![screener.png](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/screener_f5d7099c30.png)

## Differential Drag Maneuver Profiles
The 3.1 upgrade comes with enhanced capabilities for Pathfinder™ Pro users. Pathfinder™ Pro now offers LEO operators an additional tool for mitigating conjunction events: differential drag maneuver profiles.

- Generate both high and low-drag profile maneuvers for active conjunction events
- Test multiple drag scenarios with one tradespace generation
- Non-propulsive payloads can now participate in Operator to Operator events

Stay ahead of your missions and optimize fleet operations with Pathfinder™ Pro’s full-scope space traffic coordination suite. Let us show you all of these brand new capabilities — [schedule a demo with our team here](https://calendly.com/kayhan-space/45-min)!


# On the Horizon

At Kayhan Space, we’re committed to providing teams operating in orbit with the dynamic and efficient tools that enable them to manage their fleets effectively. 

Stay tuned —  more exciting enhancements to Pathfinder™ are coming soon!

Landscape.png

Introducing: Pathfinder™ 3.1!

Makes autonomous collision mitigation accessible to university missions and top-of-mind among future space leaders

Broomfield, Colorado – March 19, 2024 – Kayhan Space, the leading space analytics and spaceflight safety software provider, today unveiled its new Pathfinder Classroom space traffic coordination (STC) platform, which makes autonomous conjunction assessment and collision mitigation easily accessible to university space programs operating missions in increasingly congested orbits. 

Space situational awareness solutions are often an afterthought for most active university space programs throughout the U.S. and the world, primarily because they can be cost-prohibitive for academia. Kayhan Space’s Pathfinder Classroom solves both the priority and expense challenges facing university space operations by offering the latest subscription-based space traffic coordination services, currently used by leading satellite and mission operators, at a fraction of the cost.

Universities can utilize Pathfinder Classroom to assess the real-time safety and threat status of their CubeSat missions automatically and seamlessly implement the mitigation system to actively generate collision avoidance measures and maneuvers.

“The primary objective of our Pathfinder Classroom platform is to keep space safe for everyone by making cutting-edge space traffic management services affordable and top-of-mind among university space programs and students who represent the next generation of space industry leaders,” explained Siamak Hesar, Kayhan Space co-founder and CEO. 

The new Kayhan Space Pathfinder Classroom STC solution is inspired by Hesar’s firsthand experience as a student in the University of Southern California’s Astronautics Engineering program. “Space situational awareness is a must-have game changer capability for every commercial, government, and university mission operating in congested orbits. University programs that launch without the ability to effectively assess collision risks on orbit pose a real threat to mission-critical assets in space.”

Kayhan Space collaborated closely with commercial and government space organizations to design and develop Pathfinder Classroom. Insights from across the industry played an instrumental role in outlining the growing need for space traffic coordination capabilities among university space programs, which rely on real-life collaborations for space safety guidance.

“Kayhan Space has opened the door to ensuring our space program is fully capable of flying our satellite missions safely and securely in even the most popular and congested orbits in space,” said David Barnhart, Director of the University of Southern California Space Engineering Research Center. “Our students are privileged to have access to the same space traffic coordination software that is helping to protect some of the most important missions run by many of the largest operators in space today. Providing this as a service to university space programs not only helps predict best orbits prior to launch but instills the importance of assessing the space environment around Earth, as students enter the industry and government to lead future missions.”



Kayhan’s Pathfinder space traffic coordination platform is a scalable and autonomous solution that collects and fuses space object data from various sources, and leverages precise orbit prediction algorithms to determine upcoming conjunction events with high accuracy. The solution also automatically alerts operators of potential threats with actionable and ready-to-execute maneuver plans. 
The Origins of Kayhan Space was founded in the U.S. in 2019 when CEO Siamak Hesar and CTO Araz Feyzi, who are longtime friends, and immigrants celebrating over a decade as naturalized U.S. citizens, saw a growing need for the modernization of the space infrastructure and space traffic coordination in congested space.

Hesar, who holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder, brings a wealth of aerospace experience, including his time supporting NASA and JPL missions. Feyzi’s professional focus has long been on computers and software. Prior to Kayhan Space, he was a co-founder of Syfer, an internet security company.

The two combined their passions in space and software to form what has quickly become the world’s leading space situational awareness and automation company. Kayhan Space is dedicated to ensuring that the U.S. continues to lead the world in space capabilities and the commercial space sector continues to grow by streamlining and simplifying longstanding manual engineering processes with modern automation technologies.

For media inquiries, contact:

Nikki Bean  
Kayhan Space  
720-312-4497  
[nikki.bean@kayhan.space](mailto:nikki.bean@kayhan.space)

About Kayhan Space
Kayhan Space Corp. is making spaceflight safer with spaceflight safety software-as-a-service that enables satellite and mission operators to leverage precision data and real-time collaboration capabilities across the industry to anticipate and avoid conjunction events in space. Kayhan’s autonomous tools allow operators to coordinate safe avoidance maneuvers for all spacecraft and operators’ missions by reducing response time to collision events by more than 95%. The risk of a catastrophic collision in orbit is rapidly increasing as the number of satellites bound for space rises ten-fold over the next decade. Kayhan’s next-gen spaceflight safety platform allows operators to run missions with confidence in increasingly busy but important orbits around the Earth. For more information, visit [www.kayhan.space](https://kayhan.space).


image (7).png

Kayhan Space Unveils Pathfinder Classroom - Space Traffic Coordination for Universities

Funding to accelerate Pathfinder 3.0 network expansion and scale product line, team, and market presence

Lafayette, Colorado/Maui, Hawaii - September 19, 2023 - Kayhan Space, the leading provider of high-performance software and solutions for space mission operations, today announced it has raised $7 million in an oversubscribed seed extension round to accelerate commercial delivery of the industry's first autonomous space traffic coordination (STC) framework, at the core of its all-new Pathfinder™ 3.0 spaceflight safety platform.

Venture capital firms Space Capital and EVE Atlas have funded the extension round, following in­ depth reviews of the Kayhan Space technology roadmap and aggressive delivery plans for current and new generations of products and services, including Pathfinder 3.0, for both commercial and government markets. Kayhan Space will also leverage new funding to open an office in Washington, DC and scale its U.S.-based team of 20 employees to more than 30, adding executives and specialists in key roles ranging from business development to engineering and marketing.

Pathfinder 3.0 provides major new features that combine conjunction risk assessment, optimized collision avoidance maneuver planning, and for the first time, the ability to autonomously pre­ coordinate maneuver responsibility and event mitigation status at the machine-to-machine level using the Space Safety Coalition (SSC) Best Practices for the Sustainability of Space Operations. Pathfinder 3.0 is the first commercially available software platform that incorporates the SSC's Rules of the Road (RotR) as optional presets for establishing maneuver responsibility, as well as other best practices and recommendations, into a mature software-as-a-service (SaaS) application that owner­ operators can deploy and automate in their day-to-day satellite operations.

Operators managing increasingly complex constellations in congested orbits can sign up for Kayhan's tiered Pathfinder offerings, including the free Pathfinder Essentials service and the subscription-based Pathfinder Pro, to seamlessly assess fleet status and threats and automatically implement real-time collision avoidance measures. A Pathfinder 3.0 beta release will be available this Fall, with its new space traffic auto-coordination features available to all satellite operators free of charge in the Pathfinder Essentials tier.


3.0.png

Kayhan Space Raises $7 million, Unveils First-Ever Autonomous Space Traffic Coordination Service

Pathfinder™ 2.0 software enables autonomous satellite maneuver planning
and coordination for safe mission operations

LAFAYETTE, CO, March 14, 2023 – With lives on earth more dependent than ever on satellites traversing busy and congested orbits, Kayhan Space today unveiled the newest release of its flagship Pathfinder™ space traffic management platform to help operators autonomously coordinate to avoid collisions and optimize safe space operations.

Pathfinder is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform providing end-to-end operational services for conjunction risk assessment, optimized maneuver planning, and seamless operator coordination and maneuver verification in a single unified system. This latest release of Pathfinder 2.0 adds a novel decision-making framework developed by Kayhan Space, built around the concept of Coordinated Optimal Avoidance Maneuvers (COAMs), where two satellite operators using the platform can pre-coordinate their own preferences for rule-based decision criteria even before conjunction events arise. The result is a transparent and autonomous space traffic coordination architecture that boosts space safety and saves time and resources for all parties involved.

Launched publicly in Summer 2022, Kayhan’s first-generation Pathfinder is utilized today by nearly 20 constellation owner-operators navigating more than 500 satellites through congested orbits in space. The new game-changing Pathfinder 2.0 capabilities empower operators to be able to make maneuver decisions quickly and in clear coordination with other parties, with in-platform communication and data sharing features to augment the autonomous COAM capabilities.

“People and businesses around the world have become increasingly aware of the transformational impact satellites have on our everyday lives here on earth. Pathfinder 2.0 is a major step toward tackling the increasing threats to satellites and the critical services they enable by taking human errors out of the mix,” explained Araz Feyzi, Kayhan Space Co-Founder and CTO. “We see a critical and urgent need to have all operators on the same page at all times regarding the projected trajectories of their assets, as well as their intended risk mitigation actions.”

“Space is getting more exciting, yet more risky with every launch of new satellites into increasingly congested orbits. Kayhan Space is dedicated to replacing manual avoidance procedures with new autonomous coordination capabilities in Pathfinder 2.0 that make flying missions far safer and more sustainable,” said Siamak Hesar, Kayhan Space CEO and Co-Founder. “Satellites are moving all the time to avoid collisions, which is an increasingly risky proposition unless operators have the ability to effectively coordinate their maneuvers at a moment’s notice. That’s what Pathfinder was built to deliver, at a time spaceflight safety is more important than ever.”

Kayhan’s Pathfinder space traffic management platform is a scalable and autonomous solution that collects and fuses space object data from various sources, leverages precise orbit prediction algorithms to determine upcoming conjunction events with a high degree of accuracy. The solution also automatically alerts operators of potential threats with actionable and ready-to-execute maneuver plans. 

PF2.0.png

Kayhan Space Unveils Upgraded Platform for Space Traffic Management and Collision Avoidance

SpaceWERX selected Kayhan Space for a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase 1

![orbitalprime.jpeg](https://kayhan-prod-cms-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/orbitalprime_6dc35d2f0e.jpeg)

LAFAYETTE, CO, October 18 2022 — With the space economy and critical defence initiatives dependent on safe rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), Kayhan Space, along with partners Astroscale US and the University of Texas at Austin, today announced it has won a US Space Force award to develop an intelligent platform that autonomously enables spacecraft to safely engage with on-orbit support vehicles for services such as refuelling, maintenance, debris removal and national security.

Kayhan Space has been selected by SpaceWERX for an Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase 1 to investigate how its Kayhan Proxima solution will enable in-space service assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities being explored by the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and United States Space Force (USSF) through the Orbital Prime program. Orbital Prime was created to accelerate the commercial ISAM market toward a use case of active debris remediation. 

The Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and STTR process by accelerating the small business experience through a faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and losing bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. 

During Phase 1 of the STTR SpaceWERX program, Kayhan Space will collaborate closely with Astroscale US engineers and UT-Austin spaceflight researchers and students to deliver a first-of-its-kind optimized RPO management solution to support secure space commerce and national security activities.

A feasibility study of the RPO management platform will be delivered early next year, while a prototype and Phase 2 demonstration mission is planned for 2024. 

The autonomous RPO offering, named Kayhan Proxima, will initially be deployed as a zero-SWaP enhancement of Astroscale’s flight software package to effectively and efficiently direct and manage safe and repeatable RPO manoeuvres and missions using the existing cameras, sensors, telescopes, and other hardware aboard the demo-mission spacecraft. 

“Kayhan Space is already empowering leading satellite operators to leverage real-time conjunction assessment and collision avoidance with Kayhan Pathfinder to help hundreds of spacecraft steer clear of pile ups in popular orbits,” explained Siamak Hesar, Kayhan Space CEO and Co-Founder. “And now we’re building on that proven expertise with our Kayhan Proxima solution, in collaboration with Astroscale US and UT-Austin, to ultimately bring spacecraft close together safely to drive a sustainable space economy and defence with autonomous RPO.”

Kayhan Proxima will allow close proximity among spacecraft in extremely popular and busy orbits by enabling repeatable, safe and autonomous RPO missions and manoeuvres with minimal manual support, versus current RPO and mission extension initiatives that require dozens of ground control staff.

“Safe and reliable RPO is the foundation on which the entire on-orbit servicing and ISAM ecosystem is being built,” said Ron Lopez, President and Managing Director of Astroscale US “Our approach to on-orbit servicing is one of collaboration, which is why we’re thrilled to bring our RPO expertise to this dynamic team composed of small business and the academic sector. We are confident that together, we will provide the Space Force and SpaceWERX a solution that achieves their vision to enable sustainable space operations.”

“This STTR program will support one of our graduate students and will provide a great opportunity for our university to play an integral role in enabling the Space Force to ultimately drive more efficient and safe RPO operations in space,” said Renato Zanetti, Assistant Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Professor, University of Texas at Austin.   

orbitalprime_6dc35d2f0e.jpeg

Kayhan Space awarded SpaceWERX orbital prime contract

The funding round was co-led by Initialized Capital and Root Ventures

WASHINGTON — Kayhan Space, a startup based in Boulder, Colorado, announced Dec. 14 it has closed a $3.7 million seed funding round. The company developed a cloud-based collision-avoidance software service for low Earth orbit satellite operators.

The funding round was co-led by Initialized Capital and Root Ventures, with participation from Overline venture capital and Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser at the Stanford University Center on Geopolitics and Technology.

The company’s space situational awareness and collision avoidance system, called Kayhan Pathfinder, is offered as a subscription-based software as a service. The analytics platform ingests data from U.S. Space Command’s public space catalog, commercial data providers and satellite operators’ own GPS positioning signals, and uses artificial intelligence algorithms to simulate scenarios and generate maneuver plans for operators so they can avoid collisions.

Kayhan’s CEO and co-founder Siamak Hesar previously was a space situational awareness specialist for NASA missions. In an interview, he said the company’s collision-avoidance system is entering the market at a crucial time when space is becoming congested and satellite operators need precise information and timely alerts to avoid collisions.

There are systems available today to monitor space traffic but they use manual processes prone to human error, Hesar said. Commercial satellite operators are growing fast and need better technologies to ensure safety of flight, he said.

Today most conjunctions — or potential collision events — happen between operational satellites and debris objects simply because there are many more debris objects than live satellites, Hesar noted. But with companies projected to deploy megaconstellations of thousands of satellites, “you’re going to have a lot of scenarios where you have operational satellite events. That requires an automated capability to manage and coordinate maneuvers.”

“All the work that we’re doing is dual use,” said Kayhan co-founder Araz Feyzi. “We have decided to focus on both commercial and government business equally going forward.”

Many satellite operators have their own in-house monitoring capability but are now considering using outside services due to increased congestion, said Hesar. 

“It’s a very unique time in the space industry,” he said. “You have a lot of new companies that don’t necessarily have all the resources. They do the math and they realize that maybe they should consider purchasing a third-party capability that is focused in this area.”

“We believe that we are going to keep seeing that shift the more congested space becomes,” he said. 

Hesar said the company currently has four commercial customers but he could not disclose the names. On the government side, the company has won a Small Business Innovation Research contract from the U.S. Air Force to model the impact of drag on the accuracy of collision risk assessments. 

Drag has a significant impact on spacecraft in low Earth orbit, he said. “It’s basically the largest source of error in terms of how well you can predict your objects.”

Kayhan also won an SBIR contract to support U.S. Space Force object tracking.  

The recent Russian missile test that blew up a satellite in orbit “clearly showed that we need a better way of tracking the newly generated objects and being able to catalog them as fast as possible,” Hesar said. The space community needs better data, he added. “We’re flying blind.”

SeedRound-PR.png

Space traffic analytics startup Kayhan Space raises $3.7 million in seed funding

Recognized space commerce expert welcomed to space situational awareness startup to guide company through future growth

BOULDER, Colo. and ATLANTA, Ga., Aug. 17, 2021 — Kayhan Space announced today that Kevin O'Connell, former Director of Office of Space Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Founder and CEO of Space Rising LLC, will join its board of advisors. Kayhan Space's mission is to make spaceflight safer with its autonomous collision avoidance system. Kayhan's autonomy and integrations remove human errors and delays from the critical path of response to catastrophic collision events. This system helps ensure mission safety for satellite operators as space becomes more congested.

Dr. Siamak Hesar, Kayhan Space Co-Founder and CEO, commented, "We are delighted and incredibly fortunate to welcome Kevin to the Kayhan Space team. Kevin is a noted space industry visionary. He brings decades of experience and expertise in space commercialization and is exceptionally qualified to help lead us through our next stage of growth."

>Improved awareness of the space environment and new tools like autonomy will be key to ensuring that space remains safe and sustainable for the anticipated scientific and commercial benefits of the space economy.

Kevin O'Connell is a leading expert in the space industry, the global space economy, U.S. national security, and international intelligence. Mr. O'Connell focused on space commercialization and technological competitiveness and how to advance them in global markets for nearly four decades and will bring this knowledge to Kayhan Space's Board of Advisors.

Mr. O'Connell said, "I have been extremely impressed with the way that Kayhan Space has established itself as a key player in the growing commercial space ecosystem. Improved awareness of the space environment and new tools like autonomy will be key to ensuring that space remains safe and sustainable for the anticipated scientific and commercial benefits of the space economy. I look forward to working with the Kayhan team and the board to leverage the company's solid foundation and accelerate awareness of the company's space technology in both the commercial and government sectors."

#### About Kayhan Space
Kayhan Space is a Techstars portfolio company with expertise in autonomous satellite collision assessment and avoidance, satellite navigation and tracking, and satellite operations. We provide trust and transparency to satellite operators with actionable and timely collision assessment alerts and avoidance courses of action. Our vision is to build trusted and resilient autonomous systems for the space industry. Our team consists of spaceflight experts with many years of experience in satellite operations supporting NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) missions, combined with engineers with extensive experience in product development and high-performance computing. The Kayhan team brings together the perfect set of skills that is needed to take on the challenging problems within the space industry and solve them.

Newsroom

Articles