Capella Space Wraps Up 2024: A Year of Momentum

2024 has been a defining year for Capella Space. From groundbreaking advancements in SAR technology to new partnerships and capabilities, we’ve achieved significant milestones that solidify our role as leaders in Earth observation. Together with our customers, partners, and an incredible team, we’re proud to share the highlights from this transformative year and a glimpse into what’s next.

Accelerating Space Innovation with Our Constellation

This year, Capella added three advanced Acadia satellites to its constellation, enhancing our global coverage and delivering SAR and signals solutions with unmatched speed and quality. In a single week, we launched and commissioned two satellites—an unprecedented achievement in the industry. This wouldn't be possible without our commitment to automation and our team of experts pushing the boundaries in our design-to-launch architecture. These advancements have made all-weather, day-and-night Earth insights more accessible and reliable than ever before for our customers.

Pioneering Partnerships with Unparalleled Capabilities

Capella joined the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space ISAC) as a founding member. At the National Space Symposium, we demonstrated how our sensors can be used to detect space and ground environment anomalies and subsequently shared with other members of the Space ISAC and government officials. This demonstration illustrated how Capella’s advanced space infrastructure can be leveraged to quickly identify threats and disseminate that knowledge to other low Earth orbit satellite operators to better protect US space assets from environmental and hostile interference. Learn more about Space ISAC. This milestone highlights our dedication to safeguarding the future of space operations.

Capella expanded its partnerships with leading analytics providers, including Preligens, TCarta, Floodbase, and SATIM. These collaborations are driving real-world solutions, from ocean conservation to AI-powered object detection, demonstrating the growing adoption of SAR data across industries.

Capella’s public sector success includes a $15 million contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop next-generation SAR sensors. As part of the HALO contract, Capella is poised to deliver new capabilities for the Space Development Agency, supporting critical national missions with cutting-edge solutions.

Driving Innovation Across Teams

Innovation is at the heart of Capella. In the Fall, Hackapella 5.0, officially dubbed “Hackapella 5: Hack to the Future,” brought innovation, creativity, and collaboration to the forefront at Capella Space. This annual internal hackathon is a cherished tradition, giving our team two days to break free from their regular routines and bring bold ideas to life. From AI breakthroughs to hardware hacks, this year’s projects demonstrated how we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Our teams have also been experimenting with more applications of InSAR with a recent experiment analyzing ground deformation in Paris. These efforts not only push technological boundaries but reinforce our culture of collaboration and creativity. Another highlight was the publishing of "Capella's Battle with the Sun" and the story of our team’s response to the challenges of Solar Cycle 25. Last year's heightened solar activity created unprecedented challenges for satellites in low Earth orbit, but Capella’s swift decision-making and advanced engineering ensured mission continuity. The webinar details how we:

  • Adjusted launch vehicle and orbit selection
  • Deployed an enhanced propulsion system in record time
  • Tested and implemented a new "low drag" flight mode

This journey underscored our agility, ingenuity, and the exceptional capabilities of our team, allowing our constellation to continue to deliver fast, 24/7, all-weather SAR imagery across the globe.

Major Updates to Our Flexible API & Console

2024 saw substantial updates to the Capella Console, reinforcing our commitment to delivering an intuitive and effective user experience:

  • New Collection Types: Task higher-resolution imagery at 0.25 m resolution and wider swath to optimized collections for customers' unique use cases.
    • New collection types with squint: enabled defaulted, delivering 3x capacity in high demand regions.
  • Enhanced AOI Management: Receive automated notifications of new archive imagery at a specific area of interest to stay on top of the latest developments.
  • Archive Subscriptions: Leverage a flexible and cost-effective contract model for archive imagery access.
  • PFA Processing: for Spotlight SICD and SLC, enabling customers to leverage the full azimuth resolution of our imagery, up to 0.05 m resolution
  • Vessel Classification: Release of the Vessel Classification model developed in partnership with EMSI, provides more detailed identification of vessels than previous models.

These upgrades enable customers to work faster and smarter, leveraging SAR data in ways that transform their operations.

Building a World-Class Team

This year, we’ve grown our team significantly, welcoming new talent to strengthen our expertise and deepen our problem-solving capabilities. We are thrilled to have Justin McNaughton join as our Chief Financial Officer. Justin brings over 15 years of experience in finance and strategy across the government, international, and commercial aerospace sectors, including leadership roles at Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Inc. His expertise will guide Capella through key milestones as we continue to expand and innovate.

We are also proud to have Nathan Kennedy join our leadership team, serving as our Senior Vice President of Operations. Nathan brings over 25 years of experience across manufacturing, supply chain management, contracts, and program and mission management. His background spans domestic and international companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 50, and his leadership will be pivotal as we continue to optimize our operations and deliver exceptional solutions for our customers.

Additionally, we welcomed Leslie Kershaw as our new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Leslie’s nearly two decades of cybersecurity leadership—spanning roles in the U.S. Army, the National Security Agency, and Space DELTA 6 of the U.S. Space Force—make her an invaluable asset to our mission. With her guidance, we are enhancing the security of our cutting-edge SAR technology and data services, ensuring resilience and trust for our customers worldwide.

Capella’s culture—centered on innovation, excellence, and impact—has positioned us to tackle some of the most complex challenges our customers face.

This year, we’ve grown our team significantly, welcoming new talent to strengthen our expertise and deepen our problem-solving capabilities. Capella’s culture—centered on innovation, excellence, and impact—has positioned us to tackle some of the most complex challenges our customers face.

Pushing the Narrative

This year, we pushed boundaries, influenced narratives and change in the market, and helped close the gab in SAR knowledge and SAR application. Highlights include:

Looking to 2025: Expanding Horizons

As we move into 2025, Capella is focused on building momentum:

  • We will continue to grow our constellation to expand coverage and capacity improve SAR accessibility and drive down cost.
  • We will work with our customers to understand their need and to develop new capabilities to meet evolving customer needs.
  • We will continue to advance SAR technology for global transparency and insights to support critical missions around the globe.

We are committed to shaping the future of Earth observation and delivering best-in-class mission solutions to our partners worldwide.

Thank You to Our Community

None of these achievements would be possible without the unwavering support of our customers, partners, and team members. As we close the chapter on an incredible 2024, we look forward to a brighter future together. Here’s to the next chapter of innovation and impact!