HawkEye 360, one of the world's leading commercial providers of space-based radio frequency (RF) data and analytics, announced that its Clusters 4 and 5 satellites have started operations. To provide clients with meaningful worldwide data, the orbital capacity of the two newest clusters has been boosted. The expanded constellation can collect over a region of interest up to 16 times per day with an average revisit of 1.5 hours using enhanced payloads, additional ground stations, and optimized satellite management and data processing.
The commissioning of both sets of three satellites means the constellation now has a dozen of the next-generation satellites with enhanced payloads that began launching in 2021. The company has activated new ground stations in Chile, South Africa, and New Zealand to download the increasing amounts of data and significantly reduce the time required to deliver data to our customers.
HawkEye 360 COO Rob Rainhart said, "Our engineering team continues to achieve major technical milestones, including commissioning the Cluster 5 satellites about 10 weeks after being launched, a new record." "With all our improvements, HawkEye 360 has quadrupled daily RF data collection since the start of the year." The richness and density of these data sets is making RF activity clearer, allowing us to deliver new dimensions of global knowledge to our government and allied government partners that are tactically relevant and beneficial for national security and humanitarian needs.
HawkEye 360 will continue rapidly growing the constellation to address clients' increasing demands for RF Intelligence, aiming for a total of 60 satellites (20 clusters of three satellites). HawkEye 360's sixth cluster of satellites is slated to launch on Rocket Lab's inaugural Electron mission from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia no earlier than December 2022.
Click here to learn more about HawkEye 360's Cluster 4 satellite.