HawkEye 360 demonstrates RF detection of satellites from orbit

HawkEye 360 has demonstrated that its RF-sensing satellites, traditionally trained on terrestrial targets, can detect other satellites in orbit. The company published the results on 6 October in a whitepaper. It outlined work to detect, identify and characterise RF signals emitted by satellites across low, medium and geostationary Earth orbits.

The demonstration was part of a roughly $1.2 million Air Force Research Laboratory Phase II SBIR awarded in 2024. The contract tasked HawkEye with showing whether its commercial RF sensors could tell the Department of Defense whether a satellite is transmitting, communicating with a particular ground station, or changing its usual behaviour.

HawkEye developed processing techniques and algorithms to match RF detections to the correct satellites, which also reduced false positives. The data was fed into an automated processing pipeline to enable space domain awareness missions with limited human-in-the-loop requirements.

"Some satellite emissions may be difficult or impossible to observe from the ground because of antenna directionality or atmospheric effects," COO Todd Probert said. "A space-based RF sensor can access signals and geometries that a terrestrial sensor may not."

Sourcepayloadspace.com