Denver is poised to get a state-of-the-art, automated mission control center that can track and operate entire constellations of spaceborne satellites, according to the startup company Quindar, which reports having lined up $18 million in funding for the project.

“The old way of operating satellites using human operators is no longer scalable,”  Nate Hamet, co-founder and CEO of Denver-based Quindar, told The Denver Gazette.

Funding for the classified facility, reportedly secured from Washington Harbour Partners, Booz Allen Ventures, Y Combinator and other entities, will allow Quindar to operate multi-mission programs, while expanding its workforce.

Hamet said the facility could serve commercial, as well as government contractors. However, a video about the technology released along with the announcement suggested that military operations would be a primary customer for the service.

The announcement said the center’s design would reflect a modular, open systems approach that answers an emphasis on speed, adaptability, and “iterative fielding,” which is a priority within the U.S. defense establishment.

“A lot of contracts show that the tailwinds are in our favor,” Hamet said, in response to a question as to whether current military contracts resonate with the project. He mentioned the proposed Golden Dome multi-layer missile defense initiative and related missile tracking systems as current projects that would be relevant to the center’s capabilities.

Those projects require numbers of private manufacturers making individual components to be tightly integrated, one of the capabilities of the system.

Hamet said that 10 or 15 years ago, the emergence of the cloud created a transformation in data capabilities, offering a quicker retrieval of resources that previously had been less accessible. A more rapid integration of satellite networks would create a similar transformation, he said.

Meanwhile, some 100,000 satellites could be circling the earth as soon as 2030, Hamet added, with players continuing to enter the field.

“Speed is the priority,” he said, noting that it would take as much as 12 years to integrate a constellation of satellites using conventional means. 

“That’s way too long,” he said. “This could provide that in as few as 23 days.”

The center, set to be operational by late spring and fully accredited by late 2026, would allow Quindar to scale its workforce from 30 to some 100 employees involved in engineering, operations, and mission support.

Why the Denver area?

“Colorado has a great aerospace ecosystem with access to Space Force bases,” Hamet said, adding that Denver is also a good area for hiring top talent in aerospace.

Hamet declined to speculate on the project’s total cost or to narrow the location of a potential site for the center. He said that locations at all compass points around the Denver area were being considered.

“We can connect directly to spacecraft or through third-party mission operations centers, all while maintaining the observability, automation, and security needed for national defense,” Hamet said in the announcement.

Quindar’s venture here strengthens U.S. defense capabilities, according to Mina Faltas, chief investment officer at Washington Harbour Partners, one of the project’s funders.

“With a focus on the nation’s most urgent security challenges, we are committed to investing in companies like Quindar that help strengthen America’s strategic edge,” Faltas said.

A quindar is a beep-like tone familiar to Americans who followed NASA’s early space missions. When astronauts radioed Earth, the beep tones identified the start and end of a transmission. Although no longer necessary for operations, some human spaceflight missions still use them as audible cues.