Staff Radar Systems Engineer

LeoLabs awarded contract to deliver defense test capability in support of U.S. Space Force. MENLO PARK, CA, 26 AUGUST 2026 - LeoLabs, Inc. (LeoLabs), the leading provider of persistent Orbital Intelligence, today announced it has been awarded a $20.68 million Prototype Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) to support the U.S. Space Force (USSF). Under the award, LeoLabs will deliver a modified LeoLabs Scout system, providing the company the opportunity to demonstrate its proven radar technology for a new defense mission set. As emerging threats become faster and more maneuverable, maintaining persistent custody and quality tracking requires a more resilient, distributed sensing approach. U.S. national security depends on terrestrial and space-based sensing networks that combine large, exquisite systems with rapidly deployable capabilities to extend coverage, strengthen resiliency, and adapt to evolving operational requirements. To meet this need, LeoLabs is advancing Scout, a family of containerized, transportable, 3D search radars designed to integrate seamlessly with existing defense architectures. These systems expand the distributed sensing layer by enabling rapid deployment of additional sensing capacity where and when it is needed, improving battle space awareness, strengthening architecture resiliency, and supporting persistent custody across dynamic, contested environments. Following the deployment of its first operational Scout system optimized for space domain awareness earlier this year, this award provides the opportunity to demonstrate a variant of this system in support of future defense missions. This reinforces the company's commitment to delivering rapidly fielded commercial capabilities that strengthen U.S. national security. More broadly, the award reflects LeoLabs' long-standing strategy of identifying emerging operational challenges, investing ahead of formal procurement requirements, and developing commercially funded technologies that can be rapidly demonstrated, integrated, and scaled alongside government partners. "We're honored to partner with the Space Force and bring our proven sensing technology into U.S. national security," said Tony Frazier, Chief Executive Officer of LeoLabs. "We've spent the past decade building and operating high-performance radar systems while investing in transportable, proliferated sensing to meet emerging mission needs. Together, we're demonstrating how proven commercial technology can accelerate the delivery of new capabilities for U.S. defense missions." LeoLabs Press Contact [email protected]

Ex-Portuguese Space Agency chief's Neuraspace raises €15.6M to protect satellites with AI. August 5, 2026 * Portuguese space tech startup Neuraspace has secured €15.6 million in new funding from Lince Capital, Explorer Investments, Armilar Venture Partners and Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan. * Founded in 2020, the company provides AI Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Traffic Management (STM) solutions, monitoring more than 600 satellites for commercial, institutional and defence customers. * The fresh capital will accelerate autonomous space operations, expand sensing infrastructure and strengthen its dual-use platform for defence and government customers. Space used to be big enough to ignore. It isn't anymore - and the woman who once ran Portugal's national space agency now runs the company betting that Europe needs its own eyes on orbit before someone else's do the looking for it. Neuraspace, headquartered in Coimbra with additional offices in Luxembourg and Germany, has raised €15.6 million to scale its AI Space Domain Awareness and Space Traffic Management platform. The round combines six million euros in private capital from Lince Capital, Explorer Investments, and Armilar Venture Partners with 9.6 million euros awarded under Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan. Founded in 2020 and incubated at Instituto Pedro Nunes, Neuraspace is led by CEO Chiara Manfletti, the former president of the Portuguese Space Agency and a former senior adviser to the director general of the European Space Agency. Armilar was Neuraspace's first institutional backer, putting in €2.5 million back in 2022 - this new round is roughly six times that size, and comes on the back of Armilar closing its own 120-million-euro Fund IV in November to back more Iberian What the platform does. Neuraspace fuses commercial and sovereign sensor data with orbit-determination modelling and AI risk assessment, giving satellite operators automated manoeuvre recommendations rather than manual collision-avoidance work. An operator managing dozens of satellites gets an automated flag and a suggested manoeuvre the moment a conjunction risk crosses a threshold, instead of an engineer manually cross-checking tracking data. The company has widened its scope beyond collision avoidance into contested-space threats - cyberattacks, GPS spoofing, and jamming - through its dual-use NeuraspaceDEF platform, built for defence and government customers alongside its commercial product. Neuraspace competes with US-based LeoLabs, which has raised roughly $120-130 million to date and holds contracts with the US Space Force, as well as Slingshot Aerospace, Privateer Space, and Kayhan Space. Most rivals stick to collision avoidance alone. Neuraspace's pitch is combining that with defence-grade threat intelligence in one platform, on the theory that space safety and space security stopped being separate problems a while ago. It's a similar sovereignty argument to the one playing out across Europe's defence tech sector, where the US still captures roughly 85% of NATO defence-tech venture funding, a gap funds like AVP and Earlybird's new 500-million-euro E2D vehicle are trying to close. The traction and the trajectory. Neuraspace says it now monitors more than 600 satellites for customers including Spire Global, GEOSAT, NanoAvionics, Sidus Space, U-Space, and the European Space Agency, alongside contracts with the Portuguese Air Force and NATO. The company was also recently selected as prime contractor by an unnamed European Ministry of Defence, with SpaceNews reporting Neuraspace deferred full details to a planned announcement in September. Revenue reportedly grew more than 350% over the past year, though that figure is company-reported and not independently verified. "Neuraspace has established itself as one of Europe's most promising space technology companies, combining outstanding technical execution with growing commercial traction in a market of increasing strategic importance," says Vasco Pereira Coutinho, CEO of Lince Capital Manfletti frames the raise as a shift in mission: "When Neuraspace was founded, our mission was to make space safer. That mission has evolved with the operational reality. Today, protecting satellites means addressing both accidental risks and intentional threats." European space ventures raised 1.4 billion euros in 2025, per ESA's Space Economy Report 2026, down 8% year on year but still the second-highest annual total on record, even as US space investment surged 177%. Neuraspace's raise lands as a test of whether Europe will fund its own orbital infrastructure at the scale the moment demands, or keep depending on capabilities built elsewhere.

LeoLabs deploys first mobile space tracking radar. LeoLabs deploys first mobile space tracking radar written 11 june 2026. In this section. Via Satellite reports, "LeoLabs has debuted a new mobile space domain awareness (SDA) tracking radar housed in a shipping container, deploying the first radar in the Asia-Pacific region." Full Story (Via Satellite)