SAN FRANCISCO – Now that it’s spun out of Analytical Graphics Inc., Comspoc operates more like a startup focused on space situational awareness, space domain awareness and space traffic coordination and management than a corporate business unit, Travis Langster, Comspoc vice president and general manager, told SpaceNews.
“We have the ability to move at a startup pace, to be more nimble and to partner with companies and organizations that have this focus and mission in mind,” Langster said. “The thing that is changing is our ability to focus in on this particular mission area.”
AGI, an Exton, Pennsylvania-based company focused primarily on digital engineering, announced plans in October to become part of Ansys, a company that specializes in engineering simulation software.
As part of that deal, AGI spun off the Commercial Space Operations Center subsidiary it established in 2014, creating Comspoc Corp.
Although Comspoc may feel like a startup, Langster noted the firm has some advantages many startups lack. AGI has provided investment and office space in Exton. Plus, Comspoc’s 21 employees are performing the same jobs they did prior to the spinoff.
“Even though we are a startup, we are in the best position we could be in,” Langster said.
Comspoc retains the intellectual property, contracts, products and services developed since 2014 as well as its research arm, the Center for Space Standards and Innovation, and the free space data service CelesTrak. Comspoc plans to continue to support organizations including the Space Data Association, a group of commercial and government satellite operators who share operational data through a machine-to-machine interface, and the Space Safety Coalition, an organization that publishes best practices for sustainable space operations, Comspoc said in a Dec. 16 news release.
Comspoc also continues to operate its space situational awareness command center, a cloud-based platform that curates, fuses and processes space data from a global network of commercial sensors and delivers the information to government and commercial customers, according to the news release.
“Space-based services provide critical infrastructure needs required to operate in today’s challenging space environment and to address the growing threats to our nation’s economic and national security,” Langster said in a statement. “Our entire team is focused on presenting solutions to enable a space domain where everything is tracked, detected and protected. The Comspoc staff is comprised of world-renowned subject matter experts that have been actively involved in executing this vision with decades of operational expertise not only for customers, but also for the global space community. We are hyper-focused on accurate and precise space domain awareness and delivering actionable information to empower our customers to better understand and operate in the complex space environment.”
