SYDNEY — HEO, an Australian company known for capturing images of spacecraft in low Earth orbit, is looking to broaden its scope to monitor higher orbits and even venture beyond. During an event alongside the International Astronautical Congress, Will Crowe, co-founder and chief executive of HEO, emphasized the company's progress in non-Earth imaging, which involves using spacecraft to image other spacecraft in orbit.

HEO collaborates with Earth imaging companies, leveraging their satellites when they are not in use, such as over oceans. “Pairing our mission with theirs is a really fantastic collaboration,” he said. “It allows us to bring the lowest cost to our partners.”

The company has conducted 4,000 “missions,” imaging over 800 spacecraft, from Starlink and Project Kuiper satellites to the Chinese space station Tiangong. Advancements in imaging technologies have led to significant quality improvements. Crowe presented images of Tiangong, showing the evolution from basic details in 2023 to highly detailed images this year, sufficient to discern individual modules and the station's robotic arm.

“You can almost make out the writing on the side,” he said. This enhanced imagery aids satellite operators in diagnosing problems. “Now we can inspect satellites in space,” Crowe said. “When you satellite fails, there is a way to see how it has failed.” In one instance, HEO imagery revealed a tumbling satellite, enabling its recovery; in another, a deployed solar panel issue was identified. “We’ve already helped a bunch of companies correct their satellites and get their missions back on track.”

Currently observing satellites up to 700 kilometers, HEO plans to install cameras on other satellites to reach 1,200 kilometers. “This is where a lot of critical assets are, and there’s a lot of tensions about the things being launched those altitudes,” he said. The company aims to extend observations to the geostationary belt (GEO), starting service in January 2027. “All our customers have been asking us to get to GEO for a long time,” he said.

HEO will partner with unnamed entities for spacecraft in “monitoring orbits” around GEO, allowing for individual spacecraft inspection. “We’ve already had customers who have bought into this,” he said. Looking further, “HEO’s mission is to image anything in the solar system on demand,” Crowe stated, including near-Earth asteroids. The company is exploring using GEO-based spacecraft to image asteroids during close approaches. Such imagery could serve scientific or resource extraction purposes.

HEO estimates numerous asteroids will pass close enough to GEO for imaging. Apophis, a large near-Earth asteroid, will pass inside the GEO belt in April 2029. “This is an opportunity that is too good to miss,” he said. “We’re going to go past this asteroid in 2029, which we’re incredibly excited about, all using a GEO satellite at the end of its life.”