HEO (High Earth Orbit Robotics Pty Ltd) was founded in 2016 in Sydney, Australia by Dr Will Crowe, who began developing the company's approach to non-Earth imaging (NEI) while completing his PhD in astrodynamics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and Dr Hiranya Jayakody, Co-Founder and CTO, who holds a PhD in mechatronics engineering from UNSW Sydney. After Crowe completed his PhD in 2018, the pair applied their research to urgent applications in space debris management and inspecting damaged satellites, growing HEO into a company focused on helping satellite operators, defence organisations and governments monitor assets in space.
HEO provides commercial, resolved non-Earth imaging services by tasking a global network of third-party and proprietary space-based sensors to capture images of satellites and other resident space objects, then processes the imagery through proprietary software to deliver actionable insights. The company's platform, HEO Inspect, lets customers explore an imaging catalogue, task satellites in real time, and retrieve imagery and analytics for use cases including threat assessment, anomaly resolution and attribution, satellite commissioning, and rendezvous and proximity operations support. For sovereign and defence customers, HEO also offers Tessera, an end-to-end NEI software suite (command and control, analytics, visualisation, cameras and embedded imagery analysts), and its own compact, flight-proven non-Earth imaging camera payloads, Holmes and Adler.
HEO has completed over 4,500 non-Earth imaging missions, imaged more than 800 unique space objects, and operates a network of 40+ NEI sensors including 8 NEI cameras it has launched itself. The company works with commercial satellite operators, defence and intelligence agencies, and civil governments, and has partnered with organisations including BlackSky, Satellogic, SATLANTIS, Sidus Space, Astroscale, BAE Systems, Impulse Space, the Australian Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, Thales, UNSW Canberra and the Royal Australian Air Force. HEO maintains offices in Sydney, London and Arlington, Virginia.
