Irvine, CA – September 9, 2025 — Turion Space and Areté have announced a partnership to fly Areté’s next-generation event camera on a Turion DROID.alpha™ spacecraft as a hosted payload, scheduled for launch in 2027. This mission supports the Air Force Research Laboratory’s effort to develop a next generation star-tracker and provides a critical capability for a future Space Domain Awareness Optical Fence in low Earth orbit.
This novel sensor technology automatically detects changes in each pixel in parallel, allowing imaging up to 10,000 frames per second with orders of magnitude reduction in power and data bandwidth. These power and bandwidth reductions are essential for hyper-temporal imaging on orbit and will enable new sensing modalities not possible with traditional cameras.
Integrated with Turion’s Starfire™ platform for mission control, automated tasking, and AI-powered data products, the Areté payload will deliver autonomous, edge-processed observations to end users with minimal latency. The complimentary combination enhances both tactical responsiveness and strategic SDA coverage across low Earth orbit.
“This capability redefines how we sense, process, and act in space,” said Ryan Westerdahl, CEO at Turion Space. “By pairing Areté’s event camera with our autonomous spacecraft and command layer, we are advancing the operational readiness and deterrence posture of U.S. space assets.”
Turion Space and Areté are proud to partner in providing a step-change in space domain awareness capability in service of U.S. space superiority.
About Turion Space Corp.
Turion Space designs, builds, and operates critical space infrastructure. Our integrated software (Starfire™) and hardware platform (DROID™ Satellites + TIE™ Thruster) focuses on delivering superior space domain awareness and in-space resiliency today — expanding to numerous remote sensing modalities in the future. Learn more at turionspace.com.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/turion-space
About Areté
Areté is an advanced science and engineering company that provides innovative solutions — from scientific discovery through production. Areté’s smart systems include active and passive sensors, real-time processing, software, and complex algorithms that operate from seafloor to space. Areté provides multi-domain, multi-discipline expertise and applications supporting the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps, the Missile Defense Agency, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Energy, and commercial energy exploration companies.