Science

HAWK-10A

SIGINT / RF geolocation · HawkEye 360

HAWK-10A is one-third of a formation-flying trio that geolocates radio signals the way your ears locate a sound: by comparing tiny differences in arrival time across three separated receivers. Launched August 16, 2024 on SpaceX's Transporter-11 rideshare, it's HawkEye 360's tenth cluster and the thirtieth satellite in a constellation that started with a single Pathfinder trio in 2018. The three Hawk-10 satellites fly in a tight, precisely-controlled formation—their relative positions have to be known to fine tolerances for the geolocation math to work, which makes HawkEye 360 the first company to pull off formation-flying microsatellites for this kind of terrestrial RF detection. The payload listens for VHF, maritime AIS, emergency beacons, and other radio emissions, then triangulates their source. That's powerful for spotting ships that have switched off their legal tracking transponders to fish illegally or evade sanctions—exactly the kind of activity that doesn't want to be found. Government and commercial customers use the data for maritime domain awareness, spectrum mapping, and emergency response.