True Anomaly unveiled a flurry of announcements yesterday, including the opening of a 35,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Colorado and new authorization from the government to image other space assets and rendezvous with spacecraft in orbit.
True Anomaly 101: The company emerged from stealth in April with $30M in funding. The startup builds spacecraft and situational awareness software to protect space assets, with a focus on national security missions.
Inspector Gadget: The autonomous Jackal spacecraft, which will be mass produced at the new Colorado facility, is designed to execute close approach maneuvers with satellites—including potentially hostile space assets—and carry out detailed surveillance imaging, making it a true cosmic detective.
- The company plans to launch its first two Jackals aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-10 in Q1 2024.
- NOAA’s remote sensing license allows Jackal to perform radar, infrared, and visible imaging, meaning the spacecraft can acquire data regardless of lighting.
- FCC’s authorization allows the two Jackals that will launch early next year to demo spacecraft-to-spacecraft rendezvous in orbit.
Location, location, location: Colorado’s deep pool of aerospace engineering talent continues to attract space startups and investment. The new Centennial, CO facility, dubbed GravityWorks, will employ an assembly line manufacturing style to pump out one mission-ready bird every five days.
“GravityWorks was built to meet any volume of spacecraft our customers will require and to turn tactical problems into innovative solutions at the powerful intersection of hardware, software, and AI,” True Anomaly chief Even Rogers said in a statement.
