US satellite tracking company, LeoLabs Inc. , has formalized a strategic alliance with the UK Ministry of Defence. The announcement was released yesterday by the renowned magazine SpaceNews .
In a statement seen by that media, the company's CEO, Tony Frazier , said that LeoLabs “is proud to support the United Kingdom Space Command and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense in this important step towards the development of the UK's first constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, intended to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “We look forward to acting as a critical mission partner for the UK and its allies on this and future missions, enabling the continued safety and security of space.”
The military space tracking project will provide space tracking, monitoring and collision avoidance services to UK Space Command's Project Tyche . In addition, it will have the double function of doing dual monitoring; in scientific and military matters.
“LeoLabs will provide space tracking and monitoring and collision avoidance services to the UK Space Command's Project Tyche ,” specifies SpaceNews.
“Project Tyche - he explains - is a small satellite built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd whose launch is scheduled for the end of this summer, and is part of the ISTARI project of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense. ISTARI is a $1 billion program aimed at establishing a constellation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites in low Earth orbit.”
The announcement released by SpaceNews removes all doubts regarding the dual use capacity (scientific and military) of LeoLabs' ground stations or radars. Among them, without a doubt; the one built between 2022 and 2023, at the El Relincho ranch in Tierra del Fuego. It ratifies the journalistic complaint of “danger to national security” made by the former chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Juan Martin Paleo on July 9, 2023; legitimizes the report of the Ministry of Defense of August 3 of the same year, prepared with contributions provided by INVAP SE , the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE), the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces (EMCO), the National Directorate of Comptroller of Defense Materials and the National Directorate of Military Strategic Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense ; which listed - point by point - the danger indicated by the highest military authority of the Alberto Fernández government. It also contradicts the statements of the company's power in Tierra del Fuego, Pablo Bilbao , and of the governor himself, Gustavo Melella ; regarding the stubborn non-existence of military capacity of the radar installed 11 kilometers from the municipality of Tolhuin, belonging to the British and Irish subsidiaries of LeoLabs itself, revealed by the press.
Space dominance for Britain and its allies
LeoLabs declined to disclose the value of the contract announced July 17, but called it a “first step” for the company in providing low-Earth orbit situational awareness for the Ministry of Defense, “where nature of low-Earth orbital dynamics creates unique complexity,” says SpaceNews.
Specifically, LeoLabs plans to deliver “intuitive, interoperable and integrated” spatial situational awareness and space domain solutions designed to help UK organizations share information and data with each other and, eventually, with their allies.
For example, LeoLabs will provide UK Space Command with space domain awareness services, including persistent monitoring of selected space objects.
Through Project Tyche , the Ministry of Defense seeks to learn how to use information collected in low Earth orbit for security and dual-use purposes; scientific and military, he reiterates again.
