ICEYE and European Space Agency Announce Partnership to Change the Future of Earth Observation
New Space movement in Europe ramps up with the aim of improving access to crucial satellite imaging data
HELSINKI, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ICEYE, a New Space satellite manufacturer active in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) technology, today announced a cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) to mutually explore opportunities provided by ICEYE's technology. By using ICEYE's SAR satellite technology and imagery, this new agreement demonstrates ESA's interest in taking advantage of recent innovative New Space developments to foster business.
The cooperation encompasses activities that focus the design of the ICEYE microsatellite and its X-band SAR instrument, as well as identifying the most promising applications for the data collected by such a microsatellite constellation.
"The collaboration with ICEYE in this endeavour is helping us move distinct steps closer to our goals as we explore the potential in the New Space industry," said ESA's Director of Earth Observation, Josef Aschbacher.
By empowering ESA with ICEYE data, the constellation is helping to shape the future of observing our planet from space. Data collected by ICEYE benefits both researchers and a wide range of commercial industries. Challenging issues such as natural disaster response and climate change research, oil spill and illegal fishing detection all require repeated and timely imaging, regardless of the weather conditions or time of day. This shared effort to gain vast SAR imaging capabilities from new technological developments impacts the whole Earth observation industry and its end users.
"ICEYE's successful first SAR mission, ICEYE-X1, and the forward-looking response to New Space from ESA have given rise to an extraordinary opportunity to push forward together," said Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and co-founder of ICEYE.
ICEYE recently announced collaborations with two other European entities, Kongsberg Satellite Service (KSAT) and Aker Arctic, to collect and provide SAR data for maritime and ice monitoring. ICEYE remains on track to launch its next two SAR-enabled satellites, ICEYE-X2 and ICEYE-X3, later this year.
About ICEYE
ICEYE aims to provide democratised access to reliable Earth observation data through developing efficient Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors and microsatellites, enabling better decision to be made. Through an imaging service available around the globe, anytime, and with revisit times of just few hours, ICEYE helps clients resolve challenges in sectors such as maritime, disaster management and security and intelligence. ICEYE is the first organisation in the world to launch SAR microsatellites. For more information, please visit: www.iceye.com.
About European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. ESA is an international organisation with 22 Member States. By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, it can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. Read more at: https://www.esa.int/.
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