Kayhan Space

Kayhan Space Corp., doing business as Kayhan Space, is an American space technology company working in space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic coordination (STC). Founded in 2019, the company develops automation for satellite operations and spaceflight safety, delivering safety-of-flight alerts, notifications and maneuver decision plans directly to satellite operators with the aim of removing delays and manual errors from the response path to high-risk conjunction events.

The product line has evolved over time. Pathfinder is a subscription-based collision-avoidance and spaceflight safety platform; Eagle provides orbit simulation and modeling for low Earth, geostationary and interplanetary orbits; and Gamut addresses launch-trajectory conjunction assessment and submission of trajectories for government approval. Proxima, announced in 2022 with Astroscale and the University of Texas at Austin, extends Astroscale's rendezvous and proximity operations system to allow safe close-distance maneuvers with minimal manual support. More recently the company markets Satcat, a free-to-use spaceflight intelligence exchange and product suite covering real-time SSA data, routine screening and collision avoidance (COLA) workflows, together with a Satcat Business Directory of satellite-industry organizations, and Dynamics, astrodynamics estimation and orbit simulation software.

The company also engages with U.S. government space traffic management efforts: it was selected to provide SSA data quality monitoring in support of the Office of Space Commerce's Commercial Pathfinder Project for the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), and it competed for, and later protested, the NOAA/Department of Commerce contract for the TraCSS presentation layer.

Founding story

Kayhan Space was founded in 2019 by Siamak Hesar and Araz Feyzi, both immigrants to the United States and naturalized U.S. citizens. Hesar, the CEO, holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a focus on precise orbit determination and previously supported NASA missions, including as a radio science working group member for the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission while at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Feyzi, the CTO, is a co-founder of Syfer, an internet device security company.

Business model

Kayhan Space sells software and services to satellite operators, including subscription-based access to its Pathfinder collision-avoidance platform, while offering Satcat on a free-to-use basis as an entry point. It also performs government contract and research work, such as a SpaceWERX Orbital Prime STTR Phase 1 award and SSA data quality monitoring for the Office of Space Commerce's TraCSS Commercial Pathfinder Project.

Subscription software licensing to satellite operators (Pathfinder is described as subscription-based), supplemented by government awards and contracts.

Traction

Pathfinder customers cited include Capella Space, Lynk Global and Globalstar. The company reports objects tracked, warnings delivered, maneuvers generated and operator hours saved as headline metrics on its site, and has been selected for SSA data quality monitoring under the Office of Space Commerce's TraCSS Commercial Pathfinder Project. Total disclosed venture funding reached $10.7 million as of September 2023.

Latest developments

Recent activity includes the launch of the Satcat product suite for space situational awareness and space traffic coordination and the full rollout of the Satcat Business Directory, selection to provide SSA data quality monitoring for the Office of Space Commerce's TraCSS Commercial Pathfinder Project, executive appearances at the Global Aerospace Summit and the 2024 Space Capital Summit, and the March 2025 GAO denial of its TraCSS presentation layer bid protest.