Who watches the watchmen and who spies on the spy satellites? It turns out it's an optical package called Morning Sparrow made by Scout Space and carried by Dawn Aerospace's Aurora spaceplane to the edge of space to snap low-orbit spysats.
It's still within living memory (for some of us) that having a single eye in the sky to monitor events back on Earth was regarded as a major accomplishment that only the major spacefaring powers could achieve. Today, there are so many satellites snapping pictures that it's like living in a goldfish bowl without the cute little castle with bubbles coming out of the tower.
Add to this, the increasing capabilities of the space launch sector combined with the plummeting costs of putting payloads into space has created a new form of satellite. Instead of a few set in relatively high stable orbits, the idea is to send up whole constellations of miniature satellites into very low Earth orbit at very short notice. In this way, it's possible to quickly respond to emergency situations by deploying satellites for not just surveillance, but communications, remote sensing, and battlefield networks before their orbits decay and they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
That's all very well and good if you're the one doing the deploying, but how do you find out what someone else has put into orbit at short notice when you're on the receiving end?
On July 17, 2025, one answer was tested. The unpiloted Aurora spaceplane took off from a conventional runway at Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre in New Zealand propelled by a bi-propellant rocket engine. The 15.7-ft (4.8 m) aircraft with a 13-ft (4-m) wingspan reached a top speed of Mach 1.03 as it rose to an altitude of 67,000 ft (20,000 m).
There, at the edge of space, the Morning Sparrow sensor suite was activated. This Space Domain Awareness (SDA) payload is designed to track and take images of Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) objects that are in low orbits or even suborbital trajectories.The demonstrator payload is made of two payloads, one with a narrow field-of-view and another that has a wide field-of-view. The feed from these provides a stereoscopic panorama generated by onboard processing.
According to the partners, this sensor suite, combined with a platform capable of supersonic speed, high-altitude flight, quick turnaround time, and the ability to operate from conventional runways, makes for a quick, responsive way to monitor sudden appearances of low-flying spacecraft.
"This is exactly what the Aurora is designed for – repeatable, tactical access to near space, supporting payloads that can’t wait months or years for launch," said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace. "We believe spaceplanes can and will play an integral role in the future of responsive space operations by complementing traditional SDA assets."
Source: Dawn Aerospace
