Satellite monitoring company ICEYE has struck a deal with a Ukrainian charity to provide Kiev with SAR imaging capacity
An artist’s depiction of an ICEYE SAR microsatellite. © www.iceye.com
Finnish satellite maker ICEYE announced on Thursday that it had signed a contract with a Ukrainian charity to provide Kiev with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imaging capabilities.
In a statement published on its website, ICEYE said the deal would grant the government in Kiev access to the full capabilities of one of its SAR satellites already in orbit, which is able to capture images on Earth’s surface regardless of the time of day or weather conditions.
While the satellite will continue to be operated by ICEYE, the company will also provide Kiev with access to its constellation of SAR satellites for over a year, which will allow Kiev’s forces to receive high resolution radar satellite imagery on “critical locations with a high revisit frequency.”
Sergey Prytula, the founder of the Sergey Prytula Charity Foundation that signed the contract with the Finnish satellite maker, said ICEYE’s products are the “most developed radar satellite imaging technology in the world as of today.”
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Although he did not provide details on how much the deal with ICEYE cost, in a YouTube video announcing the signing of the contract, he noted that it had been paid for using money his charity was gathering for the purchase of Bayraktar drones, which Turkey ended up gifting to Ukraine. According to Prytula, the charity raised over $16 million.
“This agreement is a significant step in responding to the government of Ukraine’s urgent request for critical Earth observation data and it will greatly benefit our armed forces,” said Prytula.
ICEYE CEO Rafal Modrzewski said he also believed the contract would provide Kiev with “objective data and technological support.”
Operating the world’s largest SAR satellite constellation, ICEYE positions itself as the global leader in persistent monitoring via satellite imaging. Founded in 2014, the company has so far deployed some 21 satellites, including both commercial and dedicated customer missions, and claims to be the only organization in the world that offers its clients “rapid delivery of high-precision SAR satellites and data.”
