HawkEye 360, a commercial provider of space-based radio frequency (RF) data and analytics, has announced the grand opening of its Advanced Technology and Development Center in Herndon, Virginia.
The 19,000 sqft data processing, software development, and satellite manufacturing facility continues HawkEye 360's investment in Fairfax County to support US government and allied government needs.
The facility enables HawkEye 360 to have end-to-end responsibility to manufacture its commercial RF-sensing satellites for gathering geospatial intelligence. Full control of the development chain from space to ground will streamline integration, accelerate the introduction of new capabilities, and provide stronger security to satisfy the rigorous requirements for serving defence and intelligence customers.
This gives us more flexibility to adapt and innovate our commercial RF GEOINT technology
"Our new Advanced Technology and Development Center provides our growing team of brilliant staff a dedicated facility in which they can thrive, centralising all our data engineering and satellite manufacturing in-house," said HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini. "This gives us more flexibility to adapt and innovate our commercial RF GEOINT technology. Our customers will benefit through our discoveries, as we place more sophisticated RF-sensing satellites into orbit and build algorithms that extract value from this important data."
HawkEye 360's new facility will house up to 70 employees and host constellation operations, data processing, software development, payload development, and satellite assembly.
The company has built a customised cleanroom and electronics lab for advanced RF technology and smallsat manufacturing. This investment boosts HawkEye 360's commitment to the Commonwealth of Virginia as it continues to seek and hire advanced manufacturing, space systems, data engineering, RF engineering, software engineering, and electronics engineering employees.
HawkEye 360 is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new facility on the 22 July with expected government attendees including Representative Jennifer Wexton, Representative Don Beyer, District Director Marlon Dubuisson from Representative Gerry Connolly's office, Virginia Assistant Secretary of Transportation Duncan McGaan, Virginia State Delegate Irene Shin, Herndon Mayor Sheila Olem, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay, Fairfax County Supervisor John Foust, and other distinguished guests.
HawkEye 360 anticipates launching a sixth cluster of three satellites before the end of the year, which will bring its total constellation to 18 satellites to support timely defence, humanitarian, environmental, and commercial applications.