HERNDON, Va. – Virginia-based HawkEye 360 has secured a contract from NASA to provide radio frequency data for research into future space-to-space communications.
The award, issued through NASA’s Commercial Crew and Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development programs, will use HawkEye 360’s satellite constellation to collect and analyze RF activity across low Earth orbit. NASA plans to use that data to better understand spectrum use in space and assess how interference could affect links between spacecraft.
Related: SFL Missions to provide spacecraft buses for HawkEye 360 RF constellation expansion
Mapping the RF environment in orbit
HawkEye 360’s data products track signals worldwide, offering insight into how transmissions interact across an increasingly crowded electromagnetic environment. For NASA, that visibility supports efforts to evaluate how multiple systems operate in shared spectrum and use those conditions to inform future communication architectures.
The work is tied to broader planning for commercial space operations, where reliable, secure links between spacecraft will become more important as traffic in orbit continues to increase. Understanding interference patterns and spectrum congestion is a key step in designing those architectures.
The contract also reflects a growing use of commercial data services in civil space programs. While HawkEye 360’s capabilities have largely supported defense and intelligence missions, agencies are beginning to apply similar data to research and operational planning in space.
