Citra Space Corporation makes strides in space object identification

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- There are around 35,000 objects currently orbiting the Earth, and thousands of them are objects from foreign countries.

“The government currently doesn’t have the resources to actually spend to go and help identify what these things are," said Citra Space Corporation CEO and Co-Founder Tom Nichols.

This is where Citra comes in. Opening today, June 17, in Colorado Springs, their goal is to fill the gap with their own space-object identification system, all compiled into a database.

They hope that identifying these objects will ensure safe operations for both the U.S. Space Force and commercial space operators.

“The community here in Colorado Springs is a fantastic ecosystem. It is a large aerospace and defense contracting city. I think Citra is bringing a lot of innovation to some of the problems that the Space Force and U.S. government are facing,” Nichols said.

Citra's three founders are veterans of the U.S. Space Force and Air Force in Colorado Springs. They said they are focused on building the products and capabilities they wish they had while serving.

As the company scales, they said that Citra will be able to bring more jobs to the Colorado Springs community.

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