As threats to NATO satellites grow, orbital defence company Shield Space launches at Space Park Leicester

LEICESTER, UNITED KINGDOM, May 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Orbital defence company Shield Space launched in Leicester this month at a time of mounting threats to NATO satellites.

Founded by operators and engineers with more than 80 years of military experience, Shield Space develops systems that protect critical satellites and keep them running even when communication between satellites and Earth is denied.

At present, satellites rely on human control to function, which means that if communication is denied, they effectively become useless. With threats mounting, this leaves NATO satellites, as well as the military forces and many civilian services that depend on them, highly vulnerable to attack.

The company’s autonomous guidance software, mission systems and effectors allow satellites to move, inspect objects and disrupt threats without human control. That allows not only for autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), but, in the near future, multi-satellite coordination and defensive constellations able to protect the critical space infrastructure on which modern life depends.

Graeme Ritchie, the co-founder and CEO of Shield Space, said that British and NATO satellites were ‘dangerously exposed’.

‘Space is a warfighting domain, whether we like it or not,’ he said.

‘In the event of a conflict, the first thing our adversaries will do is deny communication between spacecraft and the ground.

‘That will have disastrous implications for our military, which, as Ukraine shows, is highly reliant on space. But it’ll also cause massive economic harm. Nearly a fifth of Britain’s GDP is dependent on space.

‘Shield Space is addressing that by combining state-of-the-art autonomy software and technology with direct operational experience to make orbit safe for our vital space assets at a very dangerous time.’

Analysts have repeatedly warned that Russian and Chinese spacecraft are stalking NATO satellites. In February this year, European security officials said they believed two Russian space vehicles had intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites across the continent. Last year, the head of the UK Space Command, Maj. Paul Tedman, said Russian satellites were stalking British spacecraft on a ‘weekly’ basis.

Victoria Pearson
Sonder London
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