Space protection agency, Lodestar, is developing a guardian service for objects in orbit.
In early 2026, Lodestar Space, a UK-based startup specialising in in-space security applications, is set to make its mark in orbit. The company will hitch a ride on Exotopic's in-orbit mission, Give Me Some Space! (GMSS), in a significant step towards demonstrating its technology's capabilities for space security applications.
Lodestar's goal is ambitious: to provide a fully autonomous bodyguard in orbit for allied space commands in contested and jammed environments. To achieve this, the company is collaborating with Orbit Fab, which provides in-space refueling infrastructure, supporting Lodestar's operations for this mission.
The first flight to space for Lodestar came with a £45,000 price tag, and the company's mission extends beyond defense, aiming to contribute to space missions in various sectors. For the GMSS mission, Lodestar is sending the first iteration of its Mithril product onboard. Mithril includes machine vision sensors and an edge-compute platform, functioning as the eyes and the brain of the autonomous platform.
Mithril's primary mission objective is to demonstrate at least three foundational capabilities for attack and defend missions in space: a set of eyes, a brain, and the ability to interact with the environment. To showcase its imaging capabilities, Mithril will deploy a boom stick for imaging satellites against various backgrounds. The boom stick will have different materials to test its ability to image and gain insights for objects in orbit.
The deployment of the boom stick is meant to demonstrate Mithril's ability to image satellites and identify their characteristics, such as their location, fuel levels, payloads, and potential weak points. This information can be crucial for space control, which the UK Space Command considers their top priority, and an area where Lodestar sees its first opportunity to make an impact.
Future iterations of Mithril will include effectors and plans for integrating a robotic arm for in-space RPO capabilities. After demonstrating all planned capabilities, Lodestar aims to assist in future civil and commercial ISAM missions. This autonomous platform could perform attack and defend maneuvers in space, solving the first real problem in orbital-defense tech.
At this time, the article does not provide new information about the launch date, cost, or specific mission objectives of Lodestar Space's mission on Exotopic's in-orbit mission, Give Me Some Space! (GMSS). For more updates, follow Lodestar Space's progress on their official website.
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