Commercial Space Imaging Fills Critical Surveillance Gaps for Military and Civil Operations

New Frontier in Space Surveillance

In a significant advancement for space domain awareness, commercial Earth intelligence company Vantor has begun providing specialized space-to-space imaging services to the U.S. Space Force, addressing critical surveillance gaps that ground-based systems cannot cover. The company, formerly known as Maxar Intelligence, announced the new partnership on October 22, marking a growing trend of military agencies leveraging commercial capabilities for enhanced space security.

Addressing the Orbital Blind Spot Challenge

The collaboration centers on monitoring regions in low Earth orbit that conventional ground sensors cannot effectively track—areas often referred to as “space blind spots.” Through its contract with the Space Force’s Joint Commercial Operations (JCO) cell based in Colorado, Vantor delivers both high-resolution imagery and tracking data of satellites and other orbital objects passing through these difficult-to-monitor zones.

“Our ability to capture high resolution space-to-space images puts us in a strong position to help the Space Force safeguard U.S. assets,” explained Susanne Hake, senior vice president and general manager of Vantor’s U.S. government business. “We’re not just providing pixels. We extract critical intelligence from this imagery, including spacecraft orientation, object velocity data, and deployment confirmation that telemetry alone can’t verify.”

Technical Capabilities and Operational Advantages

Vantor’s space-to-space imaging capability represents a relatively new dimension in commercial space services, having been operational for just three years following a December 2022 license modification by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This regulatory change permitted the company to redirect its high-resolution satellites away from Earth to capture detailed images of other spacecraft in orbit., as our earlier report

The company‘s satellites can achieve remarkable precision, capturing images of other spacecraft at resolutions finer than 10 centimeters from distances exceeding several hundred kilometers. This level of detail provides unprecedented visibility into space operations and potential threats.

Perhaps most notably, Vantor’s space observation capability doesn’t require dedicated satellite time separate from its core Earth observation business. “We’re both able to do all of our regular Earth observation at the same time when we’re over places where we don’t really need to look down,” Hake noted. The company strategically conducts non-Earth imaging during satellite passes over oceans and polar regions where most Earth observation customers have limited interest.

Dual-Use Applications: Military and Commercial Value

While the Space Force contract highlights military applications for space surveillance, the technology serves multiple sectors with varying needs:

• Military Applications: Continuous tracking and positional updates for satellites of interest, particularly valuable when orbital objects might change trajectory—scenarios that could pose collision risks to U.S. space assets or indicate potentially threatening behavior
• Commercial Satellite Operations: Verification of spacecraft deployment after launch, confirming that solar arrays or antennas have unfolded properly before telemetry data becomes available
• Space Traffic Management: Supporting coordination efforts when newly launched satellites have limited or imprecise positional tracking data

Expanding Ecosystem of Space Monitoring

Vantor’s work with the Space Force represents just one component of a broader initiative to enhance space domain awareness. The company has also secured a separate contract with NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce to provide non-Earth imagery supporting space traffic management initiatives. This application addresses critical coordination challenges during the early orbital phase when collision risk peaks and positional data remains limited.

The emergence of commercial space-to-space imaging services signals a maturation of the space industry, where specialized capabilities previously available only to government agencies are now accessible through commercial providers. This trend not only enhances national security but also supports the growing commercialization of space by providing critical data for safe operations in increasingly crowded orbital environments.

As space becomes more contested and congested, the ability to monitor orbital objects throughout their entire orbit—not just when visible to ground sensors—represents a fundamental advancement in space security and operational safety for both government and commercial operators.

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