Anduril Industries has successfully tested a long-wave infrared sensor designed to track satellites while they are in Earth's shadow. The technology was deployed on the Anduril-216 satellite, which launched in July via a SpaceX rideshare mission and currently orbits at an altitude of approximately 590 km.
The sensor detects heat signatures from spacecraft, addressing a gap in current space traffic monitoring where objects become invisible to optical sensors during orbital eclipses. The onboard compute module processes data from infrared and visible sensors to generate tracking solutions autonomously without ground intervention.
The satellite platform for the mission was built by startup Apex Space. Anduril stated it does not intend to manufacture its own satellites, preferring to integrate its sensor and compute modules into third-party platforms for various space missions.
Anduril currently plans to sell space domain awareness data to the US military rather than supplying the hardware systems directly. The company previously expanded its capabilities in this sector by acquiring ExoAnalytic Solutions earlier this year.
