More satellites than operators.
Fleets are growing faster than mission teams. A small number of people must watch more vehicles, more payloads, and more data.
Mission protection,
onboard.
NADE gives spacecraft the ability to recognize abnormal behavior, determine what is happening, and protect the mission while the ground is out of reach.
In development
01The mission
Keep critical spacecraft operating.
Satellites carry communications, navigation, intelligence, and national infrastructure. The operating model around them has not kept pace with the number of vehicles or the threats they face.
Ground access is intermittent.
A low-Earth-orbit spacecraft may be visible to a given station for only 5 to 12 minutes at a time. Most of the orbit continues without a live operator.
Attacks resemble ordinary failures.
Jamming can look like a weak link. Spoofing can look like bad navigation. Dazzling can look like a failed sensor.
The first symptom appears onboard. The cause may remain unclear until the next contact window, after the mission has already lost time and options.
02The operating reality
“…you want to take advantage of where the industry is going and really make your constellations as autonomous as possible…”
Asst. Secretary of the Air Force, Space Acquisition & Integration
“Space superiority is our prime imperative.”
Chief of Space Operations, USSF
“The losses in the space insurance market are unsustainable.”
General Manager, Slingshot Aerospace
14,000+
Operational satellites
fleet scale is outpacing ground teams
>95%
Outside a station’s view
for much of any given day
5–12
Minutes in a ground pass
the spacecraft keeps operating
+500%
Rise in spoofing reports
reported over a single year
03The proposal
Move the first decision onboard.
Ground teams remain in command. The spacecraft needs enough judgment to recognize a change, assess the likely cause, and take an authorized protective action before the next contact window.
Download the whitepaperPDF · 14 pages · public release
WHY-FDIR-ONBOARD · REV 1.0
Why we should move FDIR onboard
The threat · the response gap · the onboard decision
J. W. MASSONJULY 2026 · 14 PP
04Join
Build spacecraft that can protect the mission.
We are hiring founding engineers across flight software, anomaly detection, simulation, optical systems, and mission operations.
01Flight software02Anomaly detection03Simulation04Optical systems05Mission operations