HEO and UNSW Canberra Space researchers have partnered to perform Australia’s first Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) mission with an active propulsion system.
This was supported by funding from Defence Trailblazer’s Advanced Innovation Fund.
"When we acquired Continuum-1 several weeks ago, we committed to establishing a sovereign testbed that would accelerate R&D and serve Australia's national interests," CEO and co-founder of HEO, Will Crowe, said.
“This partnership with UNSW Canberra Space delivers on that promise. On the R&D side, it gives us a new RPO capability while providing a dedicated testbed to improve the nation's space security posture. We're committed to building foundational skills Australia has never had before and we’re doing it now."
The project will draw on the expertise developed in domestic missions to-date and will advance national and international space capability and security.
Expertise in on-orbit operations, SDA algorithms and sensor models will be provided by a team of researchers led by Defence Trailblazer Theme Lead for Defence Space Technologies at UNSW, Melrose Brown, stated.
“Australia needs sovereign capability in SDA and proximity operations, and UNSW Canberra Space has been building that foundation for more than a decade,” Brown highlighted.
“We have on-orbit heritage in satellite formation flying and proximity operations, operate Australia’s largest university-led SDA sensor network, and are rapidly establishing the nation’s first experimental SDA Operations Centre on campus.
“This project brings those capabilities together with HEO’s operational platform to deliver real manoeuvres, real data, and real-world validation – strengthening Australia’s ability to understand and operate confidently in space.”
The collaborative project will develop, test, and validate proximity operations capabilities using HEO’s in-orbit satellite Continuum-1 as the operational platform.
The project will establish three critical capabilities for Australian space sovereignty: RPO, satellite monitoring, and real-world data for sensor networks.
According to Defence Trailblazer, it is the first Australian mission of its kind and it will develop domestic expertise in fuel-efficient, tactically relevant RPO manoeuvres under realistic propulsion scenarios.
This work will advance HEO’s capabilities from flyby imaging to proximity operations and builds on the significant space flight heritage of UNSW Canberra Space, including what it claims was its world-first demonstration of RPO formation flying without active propulsion, carried out in 2021-2023.
The mission will answer key questions about how to perform complex manoeuvres with minimal fuel, as well as optimising lighting conditions and imaging geometry for detailed, close-range satellite inspection.
It will provide high-fidelity, real-world data to calibrate Australia's ground-based sensor networks, enabling analysts to accurately infer spacecraft intent, trajectory, and characteristics from observable signatures.
These capabilities are critical for Space Domain Awareness (SDA), the ability to understand what is happening in space and distinguish between routine operations and potential threats.
The project is led by HEO, which originated as a spin-out through the UNSW Founders flagship accelerator Founders 10x.
Since 2015, UNSW Canberra Space has designed, built, and operated five satellites across four missions.