BusinessLEO

Exclusive: Albedo Forms a Strategic Advisory Board

Render of an Albedo satellite in space
Image: Albedo

Albedo, a startup developing a VLEO constellation to collect high-resolution optical imagery from space, has formed a strategic advisory board of former senior intelligence and defense officials to aid the company in its bid to boost government business.

The formation of this board “allows us to…strategize well and efficiently around engaging on the national security side, engaging with the government,” Albedo CEO Topher Haddad told Payload. The company aims to “maximiz[e] the opportunity that we can provide with high resolution, unclassified, shareable, resilient data, and just get in front of the right people quickly.” 

Without further ado…the first three members of the advisory board are:

  • Joan Dempsey. Dempsey was deputy director of central intelligence for community management at the CIA, deputy director of intelligence at the DIA, and deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence and security.
  • John Deutch. Deutch was the 17th director of central intelligence as well as deputy secretary of defense in the Clinton administration.
  • Vice Admiral Bob Sharp (ret). Sharp was the most recent director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and has served as commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence and as the director of the Joint Intelligence Center at US Central Command.

At first, the board will be heavy on national security, but Haddad said Albedo plans to add commercial expertise with the next round of members.

Time for a close-up

Back in Dec. 2021, Albedo clinched a first-of-its-kind NOAA license to sell 10-cm satellite imagery—much higher-res than the 30-cm imagery that was allowed previously. Since then, the company raised a $48M Series A in September and has been heads-down building its technology. 

  • The satellites will come equipped with optical and infrared sensors. Data from both sensors can be combined to create thermal images at a higher resolution than anything available on the market today.
  • “We’ve gotten a lot of traction on the thermal infrared side with the government, and especially the ability to fuse the data together, because we could collect both 10-cm optical and two-meter thermal infrared at the same time,” Haddad said.

Albedo is targeting early 2025 for its first satellite launch, Haddad said, with a second launch later that year and several more in 2026. The initial constellation of 6 satellites is expected to achieve daily revisit, and the full constellation of 24 is intended to eventually reach 5 revisits per day.

Related Stories
BusinessVC/PE

NorthStar Raises $14.7M Series D

NorthStar Earth and Space, a startup building an in-situ space situational awareness (SSA) constellation out of its home base in Canada, announced yesterday that it clinched a CAD $20M ($14.7M) Series D round. Telesystem Space Inc., the Québec government, and the Luxembourg Future Fund participated.  “NorthStar’s unique space-based services will provide coverage of significant gaps […]

BusinessMilitaryPolaris

Report Considers Commercial Reinforcements For DoD

What would it look like for the Defense Department to be able to lean on the commercial space community in times of need? That’s the question examined by a new report from the RAND Corporation released last week.

BusinessOSAM

Orbit Fab and Space Machines Company Partner on In-Orbit Servicing

Orbit Fab, a US-based company building in-space refueling infrastructure (i.e., orbital gas stations), announced this morning that it is teaming up with the Aussie-based Space Machines Company (SMC) to attach more efficient docking hardware to SMC’s orbital transfer vehicle, which is expected to launch next year. The in-space servicing economy can only reach its full […]

Business

Exolaunch Signs Launch Services Deal with Capella Space

Exolaunch will provide integration and launch mission management for Capella Space’s Acadia-5 satellite, which is slated for launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 11 mid-next year.