Flamingo Satellite Constellation

The Flamingo satellites, owned and operated by Vyoma, form the backbone of Vyoma’s Space Safety and Space Intelligence services. Their primary function is to generate Space Surveillance & Tracking (SST) data. This includes surveillance for cataloguing space objects and detecting events, as well as tracking for rapid follow-up on objects of interest. The first satellite, Flamingo-1, already provides critical follow-up capabilities and observations of orbital regions that are otherwise difficult to attain. With the full constellation of 12 satellites online, the revisit time for observations of all Low Earth Orbit (LEO) targets will reduce to below 1 hour, allowing the constellation to maintain custody of prime targets in LEO. The Flamingo satellites produce images of the star background and space objects of interest, which are recorded as streaks in each frame. Vyoma’s Data Processing system recognizes these, associates targets across images, performs astrometric reduction, and processes unassociated Tracking Data Messages (TDMs). A time-series approach enables the production of data points with subpixel accuracy. Parallel implementations of classical and machine-learning based methods further enhance sensitivity and enable on-the-edge image processing directly on the satellite. Vyoma’s ambition is to build and maintain a fully independent catalogue of space objects, based on a multitude of services including time-bias estimation, initial orbit determination, track-to-track, track-to-orbit, and orbit-to-orbit association, to provide the most accurate orbital information on both catalogued and uncatalogued objects.