By selecting Skynopy for its satellite ground-station expertise, French surveillance company Look Up has taken a strong step toward establishing end-to-end collision-avoidance services for low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites. Look Up tapped Skynopy to provide the ground segment interface for its Acceleration Towards LEO Automated Space Safety (ATLAS) project (see image above).

As part of the contract, Skynopy will develop and integrate its virtualized ground station network with the ATLAS automated space-safety platform. The network will enable real-time command and control of the satellites in response to collision threats detected by Look Up’s proprietary radar network. Over 15,000 active satellites currently compete with hundreds and thousands of debris fragments in LEO and the risk of catastrophic collisions is increasing rapidly.

The ATLAS project, which is co-funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Challenge, makes use of Look Up’s global network of seven radars across European Union (EU) territories. The radar systems can detect debris as small as a few centimeters in length. ATLAS combines with SYNAPSE, Look Up's data-fusion and analysis system for threat detection and maneuvering of satellites. 

As Antonin Hirsch, CTO and co-founder of Skynopy, explains, “This collaboration with Look Up is a first of its kind. For the first time, a collision-avoidance detection system will be directly and automatically connected to a ground station network capable of commanding a real satellite. This is a critical building block for the future of sustainable space operations.”

Michel Friedling, CEO and co-founder of Look Up, added, “With ATLAS, we aim to connect detection directly to action in orbit. Skynopy stood out for its speed of execution, technical depth, and ability to interface with complex systems, making its ground segment a key enabler in transforming our detection capabilities into an operational collision-avoidance service.”