A lot has happened in Planetary Systems AI’s first year of operations:
While we spun up the company and began user research before designing our systems, the space business absolutely boomed:
- Some 258 rockets launched to successful orbit
- The number of operating satellites grew to 13,224
- And through it all spun the growing clutter of 29,000 bits of large debris, spent rocket bodies, and decommissioned spacecraft that make launch and orbital operations increasingly risky.
We researched, studied, listened, and learned.
We spent time absorbing knowledge and needs from astrophysicists, U.S. Space Force Guardians, satellite operators, and experts in fields ranging from launch, spacecraft engineering and near-earth imaging to digital communications and space-domain awareness.
As we listened, a common problem emerged: data practitioners and leaders find themselves working inordinately hard and long – with a risk of costly human error – to reliably process multidisciplinary data sources for critical, rapid decision-making.
The space industry and newly-spawned data sources are growing so fast as to outstrip industry participants’ abilities to keep up their own demands for clarity, safety, and decision support. And as they start to drown in data, they remain starved for insights.
So, Planetary Systems AI leaned in to meet the challenge:
We joined the U.S. Space Force’s SDA TAP Lab‘s Apollo Accelerator at Space Systems Command – an extraordinary collaboration among dozens of private firms, government, and academia working on a system to track and identify threats to U.S. and allied assets in orbit.
Last fall, we developed AI methods there for reading large quantities of semi/unstructured text to populate the SDA TAP Lab’s Target Model Database (TMDB). Once populated with details about a satellite’s payloads, power, and propulsion systems, the TMDB can be used by USSF analysts to evaluate close approaches by potentially threatening spacecraft.
Over the winter, we have worked to expand these capabilities for the USSF over at Space Systems Command, with new developments that we will be announcing in a couple of weeks.
We joined the Seraphim Space Accelerator, a leading, dedicated accelerator for startups in the global SpaceTech industry. Since 2018 the accelerator has been working with early-stage SpaceTech companies on a global scale. To date, supporting 109 companies across 30 countries, helping them raise over $540 million in funding for the first time. Seraphim remains dedicated to finding and supporting early-stage companies through every stage of their journey.
We are developing working partnerships with companies in satellite operations, radio-frequency security, and spacecraft hardware equipment testing.
We added two deeply experienced and valuable space domain experts to our board of advisors, Dr. Steve Crews (U.S. Army and U.S. Space Force, Ret’d.) and Eileen Vidrine, former U.S. Air Force Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer.
And we are sharpening our larger AI toolset for the data-dense future we see taking shape in launch and orbital operations.
As the industry expands, data processing needs will balloon. As rocket companies like Blue Origin,, rise to compete with SpaceX, satellite operators like Turion Space offer bespoke near-earth imaging services, and firms like Blue Ring tool up to deliver on-orbit servicing for orbital industrial applications that are still taking shape, Planetary Systems AI will be there with critical data-management and decision-making infrastructure now under development.
We can’t wait to show you what we’re working on. In the meantime, check out our new website design and bookmark it for more news.
