From hacker to space-light pioneer, Roelker bets on laser-powered space data

Dan Roelker, a former hacker and DARPA program manager, now leads Observable Space, where software and advanced optics are used to track satellites with sub-arcsecond precision and to enable high-bandwidth laser communications from space to Earth; the company emerged from a merge of OurSky and PlaneWave, won a Space Force contract, and just closed a $90 million Series A to scale telescope production and laser-link tech for orbital data centers and NASA’s Artemis missions.