ArianeGroup announced June 6 that it had renamed its GEOTracker space surveillance service to Helix. With the new name, the company has also rolled out new capabilities that include eye-safe laser ranging and imaging.
The development of the GEOTracker network began in 2011 with the aim of supplying ultra-precise positioning and orbital determination data for space objects in geostationary Earth orbit. In 2017, ArianeGroup signed a contract with France’s Joint Space Command as the network’s first customer.
In 2020, ArianeGroup added the seventh and eighth observatories of the GEOTracker network in Ottoburnn, Germany, and the Northern Territory of Australia. The service had also by then been extended to include the monitoring of objects in medium Earth orbit.
Today, the network includes a total of 15 observatories around the world, making it the largest private European telescope network. It offers high-precision day and night positioning and orbit determination data as well as analysis of space objects in various orbits including low Earth orbit. It is, as a result, no surprise that a service that includes coverage across multiple orbits would want to depart from the “GEO” in its name.
“Renaming our space surveillance service is a sign of how much it has developed and illustrates its quality and effectiveness,” said ArianeGroup CEO Martin Sion. “It symbolizes the pioneering, innovative spirit of our teams working tirelessly for our customers.”
ArianeGroup is aiming to continue developing its Helix service with plans to grow its network to 30 stations by 2025.
