The best defense & space domain awareness space startups
18 defense & space domain awareness companies in the directory, ranked by disclosed funding ($2.0B raised between them), spanning 6 countries.
The fastest-growing corner of the space economy. These startups track what happens in orbit, protect satellites, and build for national security customers, a market that barely existed for startups five years ago.
Updated 27 September 2026 · 9 milestones in the last 90 days · Follow by RSS
State of the sector
As of 27 September 2026
This sector watches what happens in orbit. LEO Labs tracks satellites and debris with radars on the ground. Slingshot Aerospace sells tracking software and networks of optical sensors. True Anomaly and Turion Space build spacecraft that can maneuver close to other satellites, and Hawkeye 360 maps radio signals from orbit to show activity on the ground.
Most of the recent milestones here are government contracts. In 2026 Slingshot Aerospace won its largest award yet, a Space Force contract for AI mission rehearsal, and LEO Labs won a Space Force agreement for a mobile version of its radar. HEO Robotics won one of the National Reconnaissance Office's first commercial contracts for imaging other spacecraft. Katalyst Space's first spacecraft, LINK, launched in July 2026 and lost two of its three reaction wheels, so it will attempt a rendezvous with NASA's Swift telescope instead of boosting it.
Diffraqtion is building a quantum camera meant to see finer detail than an ordinary lens allows, with a DARPA contract for space domain awareness. Inversion Space builds Arc, a reentry vehicle meant to deliver cargo from orbit to anywhere on Earth in under an hour.
Latest milestones
Every dated event from the companies below, newest first, each with its source.
Apex: Agrees to set up a US factory to build direct-to-device satellites for Elveo Mobile, the operator formed by the merger of Lynk Global and Omnispace
HEO Robotics: Continuum-1, a satellite bought from Satellogic, holds station near a spent Long March 2C stage and images it from about 40 km at 8 cm per pixel, HEO's first rendezvous and proximity operation
Diffraqtion: Adds more than $5M to the pre-seed from Lockheed Martin Ventures, Presidio Ventures and others, taking the total past $10M, to fly a hosted payload
LEO Labs: Wins a $20.68M Space Force prototype agreement for a Scout radar, its container-sized mobile system, modified for national security use
Katalyst Space: After two of LINK's three reaction wheels fail, NASA and Katalyst drop the Swift capture and fly the mission as a rendezvous demonstration
Digantara: Unveils MOSAIC, a network of ground-based optical sensors for tracking objects in orbitKatalyst Space: Chosen by the Defense Innovation Unit to develop a deorbit service for Space Development Agency satellites using NEXUSKatalyst Space: LINK, its first robotic servicing spacecraft, launches on a Pegasus XL from Kwajalein
Slingshot Aerospace: Wins a $69.2M Space Force contract for AI mission rehearsal, its largest award yetKatalyst Space: Raises $12M led by Geodesic Capital toward NEXUS, its first geostationary servicing mission in 2027Show 40 earlier milestones
iQPS: An Electron launch carrying its Mikura-I satellite aborts at ignition; the satellite flies that August
PierSight: Launches Vidura, a drone-mounted radar that sees through foliage, for ground defence operations
Hawkeye 360: Lists on the NYSE as HAWK, raising $416M
Turion Space: Raises a $75M Series B led by Washington Harbour Partners to expand its maneuverable fleetKatalyst Space: Books an Ariane 6 launch to geostationary orbit for its first commercial servicing missionHEO Robotics: Wins one of the NRO’s first three commercial non-Earth imaging contracts
Albedo: Reports Clarity-1 lost after nine months in orbit when a radio memory fault blocked reboots; the bus data supports a five-year life at 275 kmPierSight: Signs, as part of the Pixxel-led consortium, IN-SPACe's agreement for a national constellation of 12 Earth observation satellitesDiffraqtion: Emerges from stealth with a $4.2M pre-seed led by QDNL Participations and a $1.5M DARPA contract for space domain awarenessDigantara: Raises a $50M Series B to extend its sensors to missile detection and trackingiQPS: Wins a share of Japan’s Ministry of Defense satellite constellation tenderDiffraqtion: Wins the Slush 100 competition and its $1.1M equity prize from Cherry Ventures and General CatalystHEO Robotics: Holmes Mk2 flies on Impulse’s Mira, the first NOAA-licensed non-Earth imaging payload cleared above 800 kmAlbedo: Shuts its commercial imagery business and lays off staff to sell the VLEO bus itself to other payload operatorsSlingshot Aerospace: UK Space Agency picks Slingshot to deploy 13 optical sensor systems across five sitesKatalyst Space: NASA awards a Phase III SBIR contract to design a rescue mission for the Swift observatory, to launch within ten months
Capella Space: IonQ completes the acquisition of Capella SpaceKatalyst Space: Wins US Space Command's Sustained Space Maneuver Challenge and a $1.9M contractCapella Space: Quantum computing firm IonQ agrees to buy Capella for $311 millionKatalyst Space: Acquires Atomos Space, taking on its Quark spacecraft, Broomfield factory and teamDigantara: SCOT is commissioned and returns its first image, of the Earth's edge over Buenos AiresAlbedo: Clarity-1, the first commercial satellite built for very low Earth orbit, launches on Transporter-13 and makes contactApex: Aries SN1 marks a full year of on-orbit operationDigantara: Opens an office in Colorado Springs to sell to the US defence marketDigantara: SCOT, its first space surveillance satellite, launches on SpaceX's Transporter-12
Inversion Space: Ray test capsule launches on Transporter-12 and proves its systems in orbit, though a short circuit prevents reentryPierSight: Varuna, a radar demonstrator in CubeSat form, flies on ISRO's POEM-4 platform and completes its tests
Synspective: Lists on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market, raising about ¥10.2B, with a dedicated Electron flight the same weekTurion Space: Wins a $32.6M Space Systems Command contract for three rendezvous-imaging satellitesCapella Space: Air Force awards a $15 million AFWERX STRATFI to scale SARiQPS: QPS-SAR-8 reaches orbit on Transporter-11 and makes contact two hours after liftoffSlingshot Aerospace: Unveils Agatha with DARPA, an AI that spots anomalous spacecraft inside large constellationsHEO Robotics: Images the ISS from a passing satellite 69 km away, closing at six kilometres a second
True Anomaly: Awarded a $30M Space Force contract for Victus Haze, a tactically responsive space demonstrationApex: Aries SN1, the first production unit of its satellite bus, reaches orbit a year after clean-sheet designTrue Anomaly: First two Jackal autonomous orbital vehicles launch and deploy on Transporter-10Turion Space: DROID.001 remains in commissioning nearly a year after launch as pointing software is reworkedPierSight: Raises a $6M seed round co-led by Alpha Wave Ventures and Elevation CapitaliQPS: Releases first-light images from QPS-SAR-5 after a month of on-orbit calibrationiQPS: Lists on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market under code 5595New in defense & space domain awareness
All 18 defense & space domain awareness companies
Ranked by disclosed funding.
True Anomaly Spacecraft for space security
Apex Satellite buses off assembly lines
LEO Labs Satellite observation from Earth
Digantara Tracking satellites and debris from orbit
Inversion Space Cargo from orbit in under an hour
Slingshot Aerospace Decision intelligence technologies
Capella Space AcquiredGathering information from space
PierSight Radar satellites for tracking ships
Albedo Satellites for very low Earth orbit
Asgard Space Shut downHigh accuracy space surveillance and tracking
Diffraqtion Quantum cameras for satellites
Hawkeye 360 GraduatedGlobal intelligence network
HEO Robotics Space object inspection
Iceye Timely and reliable satellite imagery
iQPS GraduatedAll-weather SAR imagery
Katalyst Space Robotic spacecraft that dock with satellites
Synspective GraduatedThe StriX SAR constellation
Turion Space Droid spacecraft for space awareness
How many defense & space domain awareness space startups are there in 2026?
Space Bandits tracks 18 defense & space domain awareness companies, 13 of them active, with $2.0B in disclosed funding between them.
What is the latest news from defense & space domain awareness startups?
The most recent milestone on record is from Apex, dated 14 September 2026: "Agrees to set up a US factory to build direct-to-device satellites for Elveo Mobile, the operator formed by the merger of Lynk Global and Omnispace."
How many defense & space domain awareness startups have shut down?
1 of the 18 have shut down. The graveyard records how each one ended.
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