Look Up Space

Look Up Space is a Toulouse, France-based space situational awareness (SSA) company founded in 2020, operating a network of wide-field optical telescope systems to detect, track, and characterize satellites and debris in LEO, MEO, and GEO orbits. The company provides commercial orbital data services — including orbital element catalog maintenance, conjunction analysis, and object characterization — to satellite operators, insurance underwriters, space agencies, and government clients who need independent tracking data beyond what the US Space Surveillance Network (SSN) provides for free.

Look Up Space's technical approach centers on wide-field optical sensors optimized for survey operations — covering large areas of sky quickly to discover new objects and maintain catalog completeness, as opposed to narrow-field systems optimized for high-resolution characterization of specific targets. Wide-field telescopes can scan the visible sky in hours, providing fresh orbital element updates for thousands of objects per night. The company's sensor network covers multiple sites for geographic diversity and increased sky coverage, reducing weather-related gaps.

The commercial SSA data market is driven by operators who need tracking data beyond the twice-daily orbital element updates in the CelesTrak/Space-Track catalog — particularly for high-maneuvering objects, newly launched objects in early orbit, debris from fragmentation events, and conjunction analysis requiring more accurate covariance information than standard two-line elements provide. ESA's Space Debris Office in Darmstadt and national space agencies like CNES are potential customers, alongside commercial constellation operators at Eutelsat, Airbus, and SES.

France's strategic interest in independent European SSA capability — reducing dependence on US SSN data for critical national security and commercial space operations — creates government demand for companies like Look Up Space. The EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) consortium, which coordinates SSA services across European member states, provides a framework for Look Up Space to contribute data to European space safety programs. The company competes with LeoLabs (radar-based), ExoAnalytic Solutions (US optical network), and Spaceflux (UK optical+SWIR) in the commercial SSA data market.