HawkEye 360 maps the world by its radio noise. Its satellites fly in small clusters and pick up signals from ships, radars, and radios, then work out where each one came from. A ship that turns off its tracking beacon still gives itself away. By its IPO, HawkEye 360 had more than 30 satellites in orbit. It listed in May 2026, when defense budgets were growing and space companies were back in favor.

Signals Intelligence, Commercial

A team of military veterans, engineers, and national security technologists founded HawkEye 360 in 2015. Signals intelligence had long been a government-only job, done with large, costly satellites. The bet was that clusters of small satellites could find radio emitters from orbit for far less. HawkEye 360 built a database of signals and AI tools to sort through them. The U.S. government became a key customer.

A Hawk Goes Public

HawkEye 360 priced its offering at $26 a share in May 2026 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under HAWK. Its headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, also runs its satellite operations. The company said it was adding clusters to improve how often it could revisit a spot on Earth. It also bought Innovative Signal Analysis, a Texas signal-processing firm. HawkEye 360 trades on the NYSE as HAWK.

Cover: A Hawk on a Cliff near a Kiri Tree, Torii Kiyomasu I. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a hawk watching from a cliff (eyes in orbit).