online. All this activity could mean 20,000 to 40,000 satellites joining the 1,000 now in orbit over the next few years. "It's quickly becoming congested," Anderson said of the market for small-lift launch. Of the venture-backed rocket companies, SpaceX and Rocket Lab, with launch sites in New Zealand and Virginia, are making regular launches, although Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is scheduled to begin flying its manned shuttle this year.
LeoLabs' Kiwi Space Radar was set up in Central Otago, New Zealand, in 2019. It is the first in the world to track space debris smaller than 10 cm.A tiny object traveling at several thousand miles an hour can cause severe damage to a satellite. LeoLabs enables customers to track their small satellites more easily and to safely move them to a new position. "That will take a lot of the collision risks off the table," says founder and CEO Dan Ceperley.
SkyWatch would handle licensing and payment for data through subscription fees, and companies could use its software to build their own apps for tasks such as tracking crops or assessing damage from natural disasters. SkyWatch CEO James Slifierz compares his timing to the aftermath of the creation of the global positioning system infrastructure. Once GPS was in place, civilian applications followed.
Watch out for the