Look Up Space lookupspace.com
Today, more than 900,000 pieces of debris are floating in low-Earth orbit, where tens of thousands of civil and military satellites will soon be added. Look Up Space is a company founded in 2022 by Michel Friedling and Juan Carlos Dolado, to make space safer and more sustainable by detecting and tracking all objects in low-Earth orbit, and providing public and private space infrastructure operators with data and services to ensure the safety of their space operations. To this end, Look Up Space is developing a network of SORASYS radars across the planet, to enable reliable (insensitive to atmospheric conditions) and precise (detection of centimeter-class objects) 24-hour surveillance, as well as an innovative digital data fusion platform (SYNAPSE) to map space objects and provide services to operators.
Look Up Space raises €14m to secure in-orbit space activities and make space sustainable
One year after its creation, the company founded by Juan Carlos Dolado (former head of space surveillance at CNES) and General (2S) Michel Friedling (former Space Commander) has raised €14m, including €7m in private funding, making it the second-largest seed round in Europe for a Space Tech and the largest to date in France, and €7m in public subsidies as part of France 2030 and French Tech Seed. Look Up Space is now positioned as a key player in Europe’s New Space and aims to become a world leader in space security.
General (Ret.) Michel Friedling headed the French Space Command until July 2022. In this capacity, he was one of the key players in France’s strategic space autonomy, at the heart of sovereignty concerns and relations between the space industry and public authorities. He is the author of “Commandant de l’Espace – Enjeux, Menaces et Défis de la nouvelle ère spatiale”*, published by Bouquins in October 2023.
*French Space Commander – the Stakes, Threats and Challenges of the New Space Era
“Look Up Space is committed to sustainable space. We are responding to a strategic issue of European sovereignty, to a growing need among private and public players who have or will have space infrastructures in low-Earth orbit, but also to the needs of institutional players faced with the emergence of irresponsible behavior and orbital threats”” explains Michel Friedling, co-founder and CEO of Look Up Space.
“This round of financing will enable us to successfully implement our rapid development strategy, and to quickly meet the immense challenges now facing the space community and public players”.
Juan Carlos Dolado headed the Space Surveillance Service of the French Space Agency (CNES), and as such is one of the world’s leading experts on the subject of orbital debris. A Fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and member of the IAA Space Debris Committee, Juan Carlos has published over fifty scientific papers and contributed to numerous primary reference works in the field of space debris monitoring and tracking.
“Through the choice of radar technology, the Look Up Space solution will be particularly well suited to future needs, enabling us to detect and track centimeter-sized objects, observe each and every object with the greatest possible repeatability, generate the most accurate orbital solutions possible, have 100% availability and very high responsiveness,” explains Juan Carlos Dolado, co-founder and CTO of Look Up Space. “
Our anti-collision algorithms are already implemented on the beta version of SYNAPSE, our dual and hybrid digital platform that brings many innovations to the processing of SSA data for public and private customers”.
Dr. Oliver Kahl, Principal, MIG Capital:
“Space has become the strategic arena where commercial and sovereign interests meet. It is crucial to have strong European players in space, at all levels of need, and particularly in the field of space surveillance and the safety of space activities. We’ve been watching the spacetech sector with interest for a long time, and are very pleased to have found, with Look Up Space, the opportunity to invest in an exceptional team and technology, in an industry of the future.”