Herndon data analytics company HawkEye 360 Inc. said Wednesday that two more “clusters” of its satellites are now in operation and that it now has a total of 15 satellites orbiting the globe collecting radio frequency data for its government and commercial clients.
HawkEye launched its fourth cluster of three satellites in April and a fifth cluster of three in May, both from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The fifth cluster began collecting data about 10 weeks after it was launched — “a new record,” according to Chief Operating Officer Rob Rainhart.
With these latest launches, the 7-year-old company has roughly quadrupled its capacity to detect, characterize and geolocate radio frequency data stemming from emitters like VHF marine radios, UHF push-to-talk radios, maritime and land-based radar systems, L-band satellite devices and emergency beacons. It also recently activated new ground stations in Chile, South Africa and New Zealand to download the increasing amounts of data and reduce the time required to deliver data to its clients.
HawkEye 360 was founded in 2015 by Chris DeMay as a spinoff from Boston venture creation firm Allied Minds, which licenses and sells technology from government and academic labs. The company launched its first satellite cluster in December 2018. John Serafini, who had been a senior executive at Allied Minds, became HawkEye's CEO in 2016.
The company earlier this year raised a $150 million in a Series D funding round that included a $5 million investment from Reston defense contractor Leidos Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LDOS).
Serafini said at the time that the latest round of funding, on top of the roughly $150 million it had raised in prior rounds, would more than double the HawkEye 360's satellite-building capacity. The company plans to launch its sixth cluster, from Wallops Island, Virginia, by the end of the year and eventually aims to have 20 clusters — 60 satellites in all — orbiting the globe.
“Sixty satellites is an enormous amount of collection capacity,” Serafini said in an interview with the Washington Business Journal late last year. “It will generate a lot of data that will allow us to meet the requirements of more customers to be able to develop new applications that customers require.”
To speed up production, the company recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Herndon it says will give it “full control” over the manufacturing process. The 19,000-square-foot will employ about 70 engineers, software developers and space systems experts.
"We are proud to be investing in the local economy with these high-paying, mission-focused jobs that make a global impact," Serafini said in July.
