Privateer

A new player in the Space Situational Awareness business

Privateer just came out of stealth mode today, announcing their tracking app Wayfinder, which lets you visualize and track orbiting satellites and space debris. The app is powered by tech from AstriaGraph, which I mentioned before. In fact, Dr. Moriba Jah is one of the founders of Privateer, alongside Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) and Alex Fielding.

This is a big deal. Wozniak is worth roughly US$ 100 million, which is more than LeoLabs has raised in VC so far. Moriba Jah is probably the most prominent voice in SSA: he led research at the University of Texas, appeared at Congressional hearings, and advocated for change on the world’s stage (source). That’s a pretty powerful partnership.

According to this article, Wayfinder gathers data from four sources: US Space Command, Planet Labs, JSC Vimpel (Russia), and SeeSat-L. LeoLabs used to be a data source for AstriaGraph, but that’s no longer the case.

It will be extremely interesting watching Privateer to see how they evolve, and to observe what type of relationship will develop between Privateer and LeoLabs.