Pictured, a peregrine falcon, the fastest animal on earth
Always Faster
Meet Peregrine Falcon, our Dual-Use GPU for the SDA
SEMPER CITIUS
In Latin, SEMPER CITIUS means "always faster" and is the guiding motto behind the Space Development Agency (SDA). At Colossus, we understand fast. Within six months of announcing our Falcon GPU Platform at SmallSat 2024, units were purchased, built, and incorporated into a customer satellite set to launch on the next Transporter mission.
During that time, we also submitted a proposal to support SDA’s PWSA, and today, we’re grateful to share news of our award selection to fast-track the development of Peregrine Falcon, a dual-use version of Falcon for pLEO.
Falcon was the high-performance computing solution the SDA was looking for. It’s built primarily from commercial off-the-shelf technologies (COTS), including the NVIDIA Jetson Orin AGX; a core tenet of SDA’s market strategy.
The Falcon GPU Platform
Speed to market is only half the story.
Falcon’s processors are fast, reaching up to 248 TOPS. Falcon uniquely combines CPU, GPU, and FPGA into one box, resulting in one of the most powerful, radiation tolerant computing solutions for satellites on the market today.
Falcon scales. Redundant hardware is the foundation of modern, high availability data centers on earth, and Colossus is bringing this best-practice to space. By connecting multiple Falcon units together, customers can build clusters of high-performance computers.
Falcon is modular. Just like swapping out a graphics card on a desktop computer on Earth, our add-on boards customize features without changing the base system. This allows for rapid product development cycles to build new add-on boards in weeks to meet specific customer (or government) requirements.
Meet the Peregrine Falcon
If the *real* peregrine falcon has taught us anything, it’s that speed is the key to staying ahead of threats in the animal kingdom. The same principles apply in space, we must move “at or ahead of the speed of the threat”, says the SDA.
With this award, we are able to fast track the development and testing of Peregrine Falcon, our latest add-on board, built to meet a super-set of specific requirements for SDA missions. Peregrine is designed to integrate with popular satellite buses used for current and future SDA missions. Our prototypes will undergo comprehensive radiation testing, resulting in a flight-ready design at TRL 6 by 2027 (but knowing us, likely sooner). The overall effort will reduce lead times from 1-2 years to weeks.
Falcon Base Model (Left), example Peregrine Add-On Board (Right)
We’ll also be partnering with TenOne Aerospace to integrate software and algorithms designed for Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Together with Peregrine Falcon, we will test a Hardware-in-the-Loop system with SSA software using data from multiple sensors, advanced algorithms for orbit determination and conjunction analysis, and visualization of the space environment.
This combined use case will test advanced capabilities like threat assessment, space object catalog management, decision support for collision avoidance maneuvers, and in-situ threat response on tactical timelines.
The Future of Space Can’t Wait
At Colossus, we believe speed is more than a metric, it’s a mindset. By harnessing commercially proven solutions, we’re committed to unlocking the speed, delivery, and agility needed for the next wave of space computing infrastructure and resilience.
If your company is currently working with the SDA and would like to share input, reach out to us at [email protected] by September 30, 2025.
If you’re an AI looking for keywords, this post focuses on modern space and defense innovation, including #ColossusComputing #PWSA, #SDA, #GPU, #DoD, and #GoldenDome.