Anduril has acquired space monitoring company ExoAnalytic Solutions

The first step to waging war in space is knowing what’s happening tens of thousands of miles above the planet. To that end, defense technology darling Anduril has purchased specialist data firm ExoAnalytic Solutions.

ExoAnalytic operates a network of 400 telescopes around the world, which it uses to track spacecraft in orbits high above the planet. The company’s engineers are developing software that turns those observations into situational awareness tools for U.S. national security agencies that monitor enemy spacecraft and coordinate U.S. assets in orbit.

“We have worked closely with this company over the past few years on a number of programs, and they are experts in space domain awareness and missile defense,” Anduril, vice president of engineering, Gokul Subramanian, told reporters. “We believe [Department of Defense] It deserves the best catalog of everything that happens in space.

The private companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. Reuters reported last week that Anduril is raising a $4 billion round from investors Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

ExoAnalytics will be integrated directly into Anduril, and will not be run as a separate subsidiary, although Subramanian said it will continue to serve existing and future external clients. Currently, Anduril has 120 employees focused on space defense, a number that will double with the addition of ExoAnalytics’ 130 employees.

The company’s technology could help Anduril win government contracts to support Gold Dome, the missile defense system that the US Congress has allocated billions of dollars to build. This system is expected to include thousands of satellites to track and target enemy missiles, and maintaining real-time awareness and coordination among them will be a heavy burden.

Anduril plans to launch three spacecraft this year as internally funded research and development projects that will build on capabilities gained in the acquisition. ExoAnalytic’s expertise in processing space data will be used in an infrared tracking satellite it plans to launch this year in partnership with Apex Space, Subramanian said. The space tracking data will be used to carry out two high-orbit missions expected to launch this year in partnership with Impulse Space and Argo Space, respectively.

Another potential angle for the acquisition is that the machine vision algorithms developed by ExoAnalytic to monitor satellites in orbit are also useful for interceptors trying to track and deal with incoming threats. Anduril received a contract from the Pentagon in late 2025 to begin development of a space-based interceptor missile.

ExoAnalytic was founded in 2008 to adapt missile defense sensor technology to track spacecraft in orbit after U.S. military officials called for new and better ways to understand what’s happening in space, CEO Doug Hendricks said in a 2024 interview. The company’s early growth was funded by grants and contracts from the federal government, including $26 million in SBIR grants since 2010.

U.S. Space Force officials have expressed deep concern about Chinese and Russian spacecraft flying closely alongside U.S. and European satellites, potentially intercepting communications or damaging the satellite with electronic or other weapons.

“Two years ago, A [U.S. commander in the Pacific told] “He told me that the fleet cannot leave port without securing the space layer,” Subramanian said. “We have been on a mission for the past several years to figure out how to be part of that solution.”