SAN FRANCISCO — Bluefield Technologies is signing up additional customers in the wake of a recent aerial demonstration of its optical sensor to detect methane leaks. During a December demonstration, the sensor proved it could detect methane from a helicopter rather than one of the microsatellites Bluefield plans to launch. Still, the demonstration validated the startup’s technological approach for detecting the spectral signature of gases and produced “science that is meaningful for our clients,” Yotam Ariel, Bluefield chief executive, told SpaceNews. Now, Bluefield is focused on optimizing the sensor for spaceflight, he added. Bluefield, founded in 2017 in Palo Alto, California, plans to launch its first methane-detecting microsatellite in 2020 and to have about eight in orbit by 2023, Ariel said. Bluefield already is working with three of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, including French multinational Total S.A., Ariel said. “We are demonstrating our sensor to clients
