Participates in Commercial Remote Sensing Evaluation Programme

The US subsidiary of Finland-based radar satellite company Iceye has won a contract from the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) which will see the firm’s products evaluated as part of a wide assessment of commercial remote sensing technology.

The NRO’s contract with Iceye US will see the agency assessing the new constellation’s imaging modes, image quality, geolocation accuracy and coverage, among other parameters. The company launched its first proof-of-concept spacecraft in 2018, becoming the first sub-100kg spacecraft with an SAR sensor. This was the first Finnish satellite in space, and was followed by a joint Finland-Poland collaboration later that year. Earlier this month it launched its first US-built spacecraft and currently has a total of 16 satellites in orbit.

The small (99kg) spacecraft can have their performance improved and refined after launch, and can be configured quickly and easily before launch to specific customer requirements. SAR sensors can ‘see’ through cloud, so the satellites provide an all-weather ground surveillance capability. Iceye offers spot, strip and scan imaging modes, and, using some of its early prototype spacecraft, has demonstrated its ground exploitation systems are capable of producing a processed SAR image within 15mins of acquiring the data.

“Our objective with this NRO effort is to demonstrate how Iceye spacecraft provide global situational awareness and complement existing government systems, so that NRO can best satisfy future US government GEOINT requirements,” said Eric Jensen, Iceye US President. “We are delighted to partner with NRO to equip end users with the most relevant, high-quality data needed to support critical decision-making.”