{"id":61641,"date":"2026-08-03T17:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T09:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/true-anomaly-chases-an-evading-target\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T17:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T09:34:23","slug":"true-anomaly-chases-an-evading-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/true-anomaly-chases-an-evading-target\/","title":{"rendered":"True Anomaly Chases an Evading Target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[CDATA[<img width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/payloadspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VH_Mission2_1-resized-200x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"True Anomaly&#039;s operations tool kit as Jackal approaches Puma. Image: True Anomaly\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/payloadspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VH_Mission2_1-resized-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/payloadspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VH_Mission2_1-resized-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/payloadspace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/VH_Mission2_1-resized-70x70.jpg 70w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/--><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hundreds of kilometers above the Earth\u2019s surface, the Jackal stalked its prey.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, True Anomaly said it had become the first company to execute an in-space pursuit of an evading target as part of a Space Force\u2019s tactical responsive space mission\u2014VICTUS HAZE.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For this sortie, True Anomaly\u2019s Jackal spacecraft was tasked with tracking and imaging Puma, a Rocket Lab-built sat acting as the target\u2014all while Puma was actively trying to shake Jackal off its tail.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe understood that Jackal was capable for this next phase in the mission,\u201d True Anomaly COO Sarah Walter told Payload. \u201cThe mission objective was different because in this case, the target was not going to cooperate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mission accomplished: <\/strong>Most military exercises test the system rather than the people running it. This mission was designed to do the opposite. It was an escalation from True Anomaly\u2019s first VICTUS HAZE objective in July, in which the spacecraft found and characterized a non-evasive Puma in an unknown orbit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On July 14, SSC tasked the team with pursuit. As Jackal approached, Puma broke away, and Jackal had to track the movement, replan, and re-engage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Walter, the sortie involved:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Producing a validated mission plan within 30 minutes of tasking, then executing a 23-minute ingress and burn sequence to close in on Puma;<\/li>\n<li>Using Jackal\u2019s \u2018Multi-Object Detection and Tracking\u2019 algorithm to generate target orbit estimates from Jackal\u2019s own onboard measurements;<\/li>\n<li>Closing to ~10 km of Puma, within the target guidance of 10 to 20 km;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Spiraling and circling back around Puma to image it, giving Jackal two opportunities to capture multi-aspect imagery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>In the loop: <\/strong>Even though Jackal achieved its mission objectives, the mission had a few surprises\u2014such as higher than normal thermal temperatures at the beginning of the exercise. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Walter said the team was able to quickly adapt due to the relationship between the operators and Mosaic\u2014True Anomaly\u2019s mission-command-and-control software.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI would equate the relationship between the operators and Mosaic to a Formula One race car driver to their car,\u201d Walter said. \u201cThis is the engine that is built to execute on all of the mission objectives, and the operators are the brains, the judgments, and the mission-setters.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Next steps: <\/strong>While this phase of VICTUS HAZE is complete, Walter noted that Jackal has \u201cbarely made a scratch in the fuel and the capability that we have left.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe team\u2019s performance throughout VICTUS HAZE has been exemplary and we are looking forward to conducting more first-of-a-kind missions in the coming months, with more autonomy, more maneuvering, innovative tactics, techniques and enhanced tracking modes,\u201d True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers told Payload over email. \u201cThis is what our Autonomous Orbital Vehicle, Jackal, and our BMC2 software platform, Mosaic, were designed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post True Anomaly Chases an Evading Target appeared first on Payload.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of kilometers above the Earth\u2019s surface, the Jackal stalked its prey.&nbsp; Last week, True Anomaly said it had become the first company to execute an in-space pursuit of an evading target as part of a Space Force\u2019s tactical responsive space mission\u2014VICTUS HAZE. For this sortie, True Anomaly\u2019s Jackal spacecraft was tasked with tracking and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}