Anduril says its first satellite can see adversaries maneuver in orbital night

Anduril says its first satellite can see adversaries maneuver in orbital night

"What's unique is it's got a huge dynamic range. We can see things in full dark."

Anduril Industries has announced the successful demonstration of a new satellite-based sensor designed to track other spacecraft that may be hiding their maneuvers in Earth's shadow.

Funded with Anduril's internal capital, the company's oven-sized satellite launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission in July with a package of tech demo payloads: an edge-compute processor, a power-management system adaptable to different types of missions, and a long-wave ,infrared space sensor capable of seeing other objects in orbit.

Anduril reported on the success of the tech demo mission Tuesday. The company's satellite, named Anduril-216, flies about 590 km (366 mi) above Earth, spending about one-third of each orbit in darkness. Anduril-216's night passes allow its infrared imager to shine.

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In brief

Anduril Industries has announced the successful demonstration of a new satellite-based sensor designed to track other spacecraft that may be hiding their maneuvers in Earth's shadow. Anduril reported on the success of the tech demo mission Tuesday. The company's satellite, named Anduril-216, flies about 590 km (366 mi) above Earth, spending about one-third of each orbit in darkness. Anduril-216's night passes allow its infrared imager to shine.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to Ars Technica. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

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