HawkEye 360

In 2015, HawkEye 360 was started with an idea to use space and RF technology to generate usable data by advanced signal geolocation using small satellites to collect and geolocate RF signals for commercial use.[1] It received initial seed financing from Allied Minds, a Boston-based venture capital firm.[2][3]

In 2016, HawkEye 360 began contracting the construction of their Pathfinder cluster of satellites with Deep Space Industries (DSI) and UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory (SFL).[4] In November of 2016, HawkEye 360 completed their initial Series A round led by Razor's Edge Ventures with major participation from defense industrial base leader, Raytheon.[5] While waiting for the satellites to be built and launched, the company began exhibiting their technology through flight demonstrations[6] and received a patent for determining the location of RF transmitters.[7][8]

HawkEye 360's advisory board includes former members of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Army and Air Force general officers, and former Intelligence Community leaders.[9][1]

In December 2018, HawkEye 360 launched the company's first set of small satellites, known as the Pathfinder cluster, into orbit as part of the Spaceflight's SSO-A SmallSat Express ride-share aboard a SpaceX Falcon9.[10][11] The satellites, in both this first cluster as well as a later second cluster, were built by UTIAS Space Flight Laboratories (SFL)[12]

In April 2019, HawkEye 360 released the company's first product, RFGeo. This product identifies and locates the RF signals HawkEye 360 collects so customers can then view this data.[13]

In October 2019, HawkEye 360 expanded the company's signal waveform library to include ultra high frequency (UHF) band and L band frequencies as well as an update to RFGeo. The company’s signal expansion into the UHF band enables monitoring of push-to-talk radios, which have the potential to aid the discovery of cross-border smuggling operations and poaching. The update to RFGeo includes a process to extract vessels' MMSI identifiers embedded into their channel 70 broadcasts. Once this happens, a specific vessel can be matched to its broadcast enabling by emitter tracking of objects. The RFGeo update also includes a catalog of previously collected RF Geo data, so customers can order and access archived data.[14]

In December 2019, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) granted HawkEye 360 a contract[15] to explore combining commercial RF capabilities into NRO’s geospatial intelligence architecture.[16]

Also, in 2019, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a license allowing HawkEye 360 to eventually launch up to 80 incremental satellites for the eventual steady-state operation of a 15-cluster constellation.[12]

In 2020, the National Air and Space Museum added a full-size model of one of HawkEye 360's Pathfinder satellites to display in their museum as part of an upcoming exhibit detailing the story of the space age.[17] In July, HawkEye 360 reported their second cluster of satellites has successfully completed their environmental testing: one of the last technical milestones before the second cluster for launch, which is currently scheduled for a Spaceflight rideshare mission in January 2021 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.[18][19]

HawkEye 360 has plans to execute and maintain a 30-satellite constellation, and the company is scheduled to launch new clusters once a quarter starting in early 2021.[11][20]

Currently, HawkEye 360 has three small satellites in the Pathfinder cluster orbiting the earth at an altitude of 575 km. In order to precisely trilaterate and map signals, the satellites fly in a special formation facilitated by a novel water propulsion system.[21] Each satellite (also referred to as a Hawk) in the cluster has a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) with the ability to detect a wide range of radio frequencies, and once all three satellites have picked up on a common signal, they can trilaterate that signal with accuracies dependent upon the terrain, signal, and other factors.[10][22]

HawkEye 360's second satellite cluster includes several improvements: the new satellites have the ability to collect multiple RF signals at one time to create layers of RF information. Each of the satellites also has an improved SDR, so they can collect higher quality data for more accurate geolocation. In addition to this, the satellites have more powerful processing to handle more data.[18][23]