LEO Mega-Constellations and the Future of Persistent Surveillance

Low Earth orbit is getting crowded. With over 10,000 commercial satellites projected by 2028, the opportunity for persistent, always-on surveillance is no longer theoretical. It's architectural.

The promise of mega-constellations is persistent coverage: enough satellites in enough orbital planes that any point on Earth can be revisited within minutes. For defense and intelligence, this transforms surveillance from a scheduled activity into a continuous one.

The orchestration challenge

Persistence without orchestration is just data. A mega-constellation generates petabytes daily. Without autonomous systems to prioritize collection, detect changes, and route intelligence to operators, the volume becomes a liability.

Kestrel treats each satellite not as an independent asset but as a node in an autonomous sensing network, dynamically allocating collection tasks across operators and modalities at machine speed.