Munich Startup Project-S Exits Stealth, Sets October Orbital Radar Demo

Project-S, a Munich-based space situational awareness startup, has emerged from stealth with multi-million-euro backing and plans to conduct its first in-orbit demonstration of an active radar system next month. The company said the demonstrator will launch aboard a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission, marking its debut in an increasingly congested orbital environment.

The company revealed its plans publicly on 2 September, describing an effort to develop systems capable of detecting smaller orbital threats and modelling their paths to support safer satellite operations. Project-S disclosed that it had already closed a funding round led by Greek venture capital fund Uni.Fund II, supplemented by non-dilutive support from the German government and ESA-linked public innovation programmes. The exact size of the round was not shared.

Project-S intends to use compact space-based active radar to detect and track objects in orbit. It describes the software layer supporting those sensors as an AI-enabled orbital-intelligence system, which will model object trajectories, assess collision risks, and provide satellite operators with information to support avoidance decisions.

The company placed particular emphasis on objects measuring between 1 and 10 centimetres, a size range it describes as difficult to track yet large enough to cause catastrophic damage in a collision. In ESA's latest annual Space Environment Report, published in April, the agency estimated there are around 54,000 objects larger than 10 centimetres orbiting Earth, 1.2 million objects between 1 and 10 centimetres, and 120 million between 1 millimetre and 1 centimetre. Project-S specifically highlighted the estimate for the 1 to 10 centimetre band, indicating that range is a central focus of its planned detection capabilities.

"The space economy is becoming infrastructure. Safety must scale with it," said Project-S CEO Leonidas Askianakis. "We founded Project-S to help operators understand smaller threats, make better decisions and keep orbital access open for the generations that follow."

According to the company, its work is aimed at supporting safer satellite operations by giving operators better information about smaller threats and the decisions needed to avoid them. The stated purpose of both the radar sensors and the accompanying intelligence software is to keep orbital access open as the space economy expands.

The company said the first demonstration of its space-based active radar will launch next month aboard the SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission. It did not provide a timeline for when the wider system could become operational.