On Tuesday, California satellite telecommunications company Orbital Sidekick (OSK), which has the distinction of being the first private U.S. company to deploy hyperspectral sensors in space–announced the imminent launch of its state-of-the-art hyperspectral imaging satellite, the Aurora, which will serve clients in the energy, mining, infrastructure and defense sectors.
Its mission is to monitor oil and gas pipelines, map methane emissions, explore clean energy resources, detect minerals, track sustainable mining practices and mitigate wildfire risks on Earth from space.
“We’re excited to be launching Aurora to help provide consistent monitoring services across all of our clients as well as further the exploration for clean energy sources globally. Working with Astro Digital, OSK will be able to focus on the payload and extract information from our unique and proprietary hyperspectral data with the utmost precision,” said Dan Katz, CEO & Co-Founder of Orbital Sidekick, in announcing the upcoming launch.
Aurora will capture more than 450 spectral bands in the visible to shortwave infrared light spectrum (400 to 2500 nm) with a pixel size of approximately 30 meters, making it the highest resolution commercial hyperspectral imagery available to date.
Quite a Series A
News of the launch comes just two months after OSK received a $16 million Series A venture capital round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek, along with energy venture capital investor Energy Innovation Capital, and existing investors Allied Minds, 11.2 Capital and Syndicate 708.
“Paired with our recent $16 million United States Air Force contract award in October 2020, the close of this Series A round allows us to focus on the deployment of the GHOSt constellation and the commercial release of our monitoring services platform SIGMA,” Tushar Prabhakar, COO and Co-Founder of Orbital Sidekick, said upon announcing the round. “With our growing list of commercial and government partners, OSK is primed to become a global leader in providing targeted solutions for customer pain points.”
OSK has developed a number of external partnerships for pilot programs in the oil and gas sector, including with energy major Phillips 66 and the iPIPE Partnership, which is managed by North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center and includes natural gas pipeline transporters Energy Transfer and TC Energy, among others.
OSK is also launching its Global Hyperspectral Observation Satellite constellation, known as GHOSt, on multiple SpaceX Falcon 9 missions beginning in Q1 2022.
