PARIS—Vantor says it has selected EnduroSat and CACI to develop and build the spacecraft for a new 40 cm-class Earth-imaging constellation.
The company plans to deploy an initial set of 24 Pulse satellites between 2027 and 2029. It has not disclosed launch service providers for the satellites, which will weigh roughly 400 kg (880 lb.).
The new satellites are intended for broad area monitoring to augment Vantor’s higher-resolution satellites and help automatically cue them.
“We’re designing the fleet to support different sensor types over time,” said Matt Jenkins, Vantor's chief space systems officer. The spacecraft design will accommodate radio-frequency payloads in addition to Vantor’s traditional Earth-observation sensors.
The constellation will be a mesh network and come with around 30 min. revisit time, Jenkins said at World Space Business Week.
The first two satellites going up in 2027 will sport electro-optical sensors, Jenkins said in an interview. The sensor mix for the constellation is still under study, though future satellites could carry, for instance, synthetic operator radars, radio-frequency detection equipment or short-wave infrared detectors.
“We're looking not only for revisit but multi-phenomenology,” he said.
CACI has been expanding its space activities and last year acquired ARKA Group in a $2.6 billion deal as part of that push.
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