Philip Hover Smoot - Scout Space

Space Domain Awareness, the comprehensive understanding of the space environment, is crucial for ensuring the safety and sustainability of space operations. On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Philip Hover-Smoot, who was named CEO of Scout Space in January of this year.

"If you really think hard about what the future of space needs, understanding what's there, where it's going, what it’s trying to do is really fundamental to absolutely everything." Philip Hover-Smoot

Scout Space launched its first in-space products and services in 2021, allowing spacecraft to see and understand the things around them while on orbit.

"If you really think hard about what the future of space needs, understanding what's there, where it's going, what it’s trying to do is really fundamental to absolutely everything," he said.

The 27th edition of the Novaspace "Satellites to be Built and Launched” report forecasts that an average of over 3,700 satellites will be launched annually between 2024 and 2033 – equivalent to 10 satellites per day. Keeping track of all those satellites, not to mention all of the accumulated space debris in low, medium and geostationary Earth orbit, is only going to get more complex. Hover-Smoot discusses the company's role in developing technology that can autonomously recognize threats and inform spacecraft how to avoid them.