Space surveillance firm at hub
BASE AT HIGH-TECH PARK FOR SMUGGLING AND PIRACY SPOTTERS
A COMPANY that uses satellite clusters to help governments keep an eye on illegal activity is opening an operation at Space Park Leicester.
The UK subsidiary of Kleos Space wants to make use of the growing tech community and research and manufacturing facilities at the £100 million city space hub.
Companies with existing operations in the space park include Hewlett Packard, Airbus, Amazon and satellite broadband provider AST SpaceMobile.
Kleos Space has 12 satellites, flown in clusters of four in close formation.
It uses them to track radio frequency signals on land and sea to look for hidden activity such as piracy, drug and people smuggling, illegal fishing and border infringements.
Its last cluster went up in April and a fourth cluster, the Observer Mission, is planned for launch later this year on the Transporter-6 SpaceX mission. Its independent data complements intelligence and surveillance data collected by governments and private companies.
Kleos’ global chief innovation officer, Miles Ashcroft, said: “The Space Park offers a fantastic work environment for us, and with its plans for the future and potential opportunities for collaboration, it is great a fit for our strategy to grow to meet the demands of our customers.”
Kleos has operations in Luxembourg, the US and UK and eight jobs are involved in the Leicester operation.
Its first satellite cluster, the Scouting Mission, launched in November 2020 as a demonstrator.
Its second satellite cluster, the Vigilance Mission, launched in June 2021 and its Patrol Mission launched in April 2022. Its Observer Mission is targeted for a 2022 launch. It wants to eventually have up to 20 clusters.