Most Earth observation satellites see the same way: photons hit a conventional detector, and software extracts meaning from the noise. Diffraqtion is attempting to change the detector.
Johannes Galatsanos is the Co-Founder and CEO of Diffraqtion, a quantum imaging startup spun out of MIT and the University of Maryland that is developing what it calls a quantum camera for satellites and telescopes. The technology, built on research by co-founder Prof. Saikat Guha with NASA and DARPA, promises up to 20 times higher resolution and 1,000 times faster image processing than conventional optical systems. Galatsanos holds degrees from MIT and Oxford and brings more than 15 years of experience in AI, quantum technology, and operations, including time as Executive Director at Novartis building data and AI products across manufacturing and R&D. He co-founded the company with Guha and Christine Wang, the company’s CTO and a veteran photonics engineer.
The company announced a $4.2 million pre-seed round in January 2026, led by QDNL Participations with participation from milemark capital, Aether VC, ADIN, and Offline Ventures. The round included a non-dilutive DARPA Small Business Innovation Research Direct-to-Phase II contract supporting space domain awareness applications. SatNews covered the funding announcement, noting that the capital will accelerate development of the company’s quantum camera technology for space domain awareness constellations.
Diffraqtion’s roadmap leads from ground to orbit. The DARPA contract funds on-sky demonstrations of the quantum camera on ground-based telescopes through 2027, validating the system’s performance against real astronomical targets. After that, the company plans to launch Galileo-1, its first space domain awareness satellite, in 2028, followed by a second satellite targeting Earth observation and Golden Dome missile defense missions in 2029. In April 2026, the Space Force awarded $3.2 billion in Golden Dome contracts for an orbital interceptor constellation, a program that will require exactly the kind of high-resolution, fast-processing sensor Diffraqtion is building. The company won Europe’s SLUSH 100 award for technology innovation in November 2025 and a $100,000 TechConnect space innovation award in August 2025.
At SmallSat Europe, Galatsanos delivers a Tech Brief titled “EO Using Quantum Sensing Technology.”
Quantum computing gets the headlines. Quantum sensing may get the satellites.
