HEO Space Images Holiday Theme as NORAD Marks 70 Years of Santa Tracking

HEO Space, a firm specializing in high-resolution orbital photography, recently released a lighthearted image on social media, humorously suggesting its satellite captured a "test launch of Santa Claus's sleigh" near the eve of Christmas 2025. This promotional activity coincided with the 70th anniversary of the formal North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Tracks Santa program, which also monitored Santa's purported journey in 2025. HEO Space focuses on Non-Earth Imaging (NEI) services, utilizing a distributed network of sensors, including its own, hosted on partner spacecraft to achieve broad orbital coverage.

The company's recent technological deployment, the Holmes Mk2 sensor, was launched to a higher Low Earth Orbit (LEO) following the receipt of the first NOAA Tier-3 license granted for a commercial optical camera operating above 800 kilometers altitude. This sensor is aboard Impulse Space's Mira spacecraft as part of the LEO Express 3 mission, which launched on November 28, 2025. Operating from this elevated vantage point in high-LEO, HEO Space can now access visibility of over 1,000 new space objects, including many of the 50 most hazardous debris objects currently tracked. The Holmes Mk2 system features an upgraded 12-megapixel sensor, an increase from its predecessor's 4 megapixels, and a frame rate boost from 14 frames per second (fps) to 100 fps to minimize motion blur when capturing fast-moving targets.

Furthermore, the aperture size on the Holmes Mk2 was increased from 94mm to 120mm, and the system now incorporates independent radiation shielding, intended to enhance its operational longevity separate from the host spacecraft. The NOAA Tier-3 license is significant, as this category is reserved for systems capable of collecting unenhanced data not substantially the same as that available from other entities, reflecting an expansion of operational reach into high-LEO orbits following the expiration of previous restrictions in July 2023.

Concurrently, the NORAD Tracks Santa program celebrated its 70th year, a tradition that began unexpectedly in 1955 when a child misdialed the operations center of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), NORAD's predecessor. For the 2025 tracking season, NORAD, a bi-national organization between the U.S. and Canada, introduced new digital tools, including a web-based calling option that supports virtual translation services in over 200 languages for children contacting the operations center. This cultural touchstone, which monitors aerospace threats continuously, dedicates its focus on Christmas Eve to tracking Santa’s global delivery route.

HEO Space's capability to capture detailed imagery of objects in orbit is not new; the company has previously secured close-ups of significant assets such as the International Space Station (ISS), China's Tiangong space station, and the Hubble Space Telescope. The juxtaposition of HEO's advanced imaging capabilities with the enduring NORAD tradition illustrates the increasing sophistication of commercial Non-Earth Imaging services. HEO has an ambitious goal to image any object in the solar system on demand, planning to deploy over 60 NEI sensors in LEO before the end of 2025 and achieve initial operating capability in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) by late 2026, accelerating U.S.-based imaging capacity through collaborations like the one with Impulse Space.