Odin Space opens U.S. office in Los Angeles

DENVER – Odin Space, a British startup focused on mapping and analyzing sub-centimeter orbital debris, announced plans May 7 to establish its first U.S. office in Los Angeles.

“We are expanding in the United States because that is where the demand has moved fastest, and where the strategic stakes of attribution are highest,” James New, Odin Space CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.

Jerry Welsh, former CEO of Iceye U.S., will lead Odin’s Los Angeles office.

Odin’s U.S. office will serve commercial and government satellite operators seeking information on debris larger than one millimeter, which is too small to be tracked by ground-based sensors but large enough to damage spacecraft since it’s traveling at orbital velocity, New told SpaceNews.  

“Sub-centimeter debris has moved to the front of the mission-risk conversation,” New said. “Operators have been flying blind for years. They have no baseline for the debris environment, no way to know when their spacecraft has been struck, no way to attribute a failure caused by debris, and no affordable way to insure against this growing risk.”

Collision insurance

Odin also announced that Arkisys, a Southern California startup developing modular spacecraft, is the first U.S. customer for a product line that combines Odin’s Nano Sensor to detects and analyzes debris strikes with insurance for debris collisions.

Lloyd’s of London underwriters is providing the collision insurance. Odin sensors will furnish independent verification of debris strikes for the insurance policies.

“When a satellite fails in orbit, its operator usually has no way of knowing whether it was struck, what struck it, or where the impact came from,” New said. “Sub-centimeter detection is what turns a silent failure into usable evidence.”

In addition to Nano Sensor, a “black box for spacecraft” that is roughly the size of an adhesive bandage, Odin is developing Outpost, a dedicated satellite with a deployable sensor for reconnaissance and monitoring.

“You would put multiple Outposts near critical infrastructure, whether that’s defense satellites, data centers or space stations, to tell you within minutes if there’s a new debris field or a kinetic attack,” New said. “Outpost will tell you how much debris there is, how fast it’s traveling and its trajectory so you can find point of origin.”

Odin Space raised $3 million in a December 2025 funding round to expand its staff and miniaturize its debris sensor that was initially launched on D-Orbit’s ION satellite carrier in 2023.