Jump to content

ICEYE

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 31.183.197.158 (talk) at 17:16, 30 November 2022. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

ICEYE
IndustrySatellite imagery
Founded2014
FoundersRafał Modrzewski
Pekka Laurila
HeadquartersEspoo, Finland
Area served
Worldwide
Websitewww.iceye.com

ICEYE is a Finnish - Polish microsatellite manufacturer.[1][2] ICEYE was founded in 2014 as a spin-off of Aalto University's University Radio Technology Department, and is based in Espoo.[3]

The CEO and co-founder of ICEYE is Rafał Modrzewski.[2][1]

History

In 2015, ICEYE demonstrated that synthetic-aperture radar could be used to monitor hazardous ice features such as pack ice.[4] In the same year, on 1 September, ICEYE received a €2,4M grant from the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme for SMEs with the goal "to integrate, pilot test and demonstrate the ICEYE SAR system in its final form as a microsatellite in order to attract private investment for launching."[5]

In August 2017, ICEYE raised US$13 million in capital, including from the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovations.[2]

In 2019, the founders of ICEYE and Aalto staff involved were awarded the Finnish Engineering Award.[6][7] The achievement was called "a breakthrough in Finnish space technology" in the award citation.[8] The award is given annually by the Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK, the main trade union and learned society for university graduates in Finland, and comes with a cash prize of €30,000.[6]

In October 2019, ICEYE started offering commercial access to its 1-metre resolution SAR-imagery, and operated 3 SAR satellites.[9]

In December 2020, ICEYE sold two satellites to the air force of Brazil, these satellites were launched in May 2022 on SpaceX's Transporter-5 mission.[10][11]

In August 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ICEYE signed a contract with the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation that would give the Armed Forces of Ukraine access to one of its satellites.[12][13]

Satellites

On 12 January 2018, a PSLV-XL rocket on PSLV-C40 mission carried ICEYE-X1 (also known as ICEYE POC1, COSPAR 2018-004D; POC stands for "Proof Of Concept") into orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.[2] ICEYE-X1 was the first satellite (70 kg) under 100 kg to carry a synthetic-aperture radar, and was the first Finnish commercial satellite.[2][1][14]

The second satellite, ICEYE-X2 (also known as ICEYE POC2, COSPAR 2018-099AU) was launched into orbit on 3 December 2018, at 18:34 UTC by a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. The launch took place from the Vandenberg, SLC-4E.[15]

The third ICEYE X payload was launched on 5 May 2019 on an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, in New Zealand. The payload, called ICEYE-X3, was integrated into the Harbinger satellite (the satellite is also known as ICEYE X3, ICEYE POC3, COSPAR 2019-026E), a proof-of-concept prototype for a York Space Systems' S-class satellite bus. The Harbinger was launched on its demonstration mission, and the payloads integrated into the satellite included the ICEYE X3, BridgeSat's optical communications payload and Enpulsion of Austria's Field Emission Electric Propulsion system. The launch was conducted as the STP-27RD mission of the Space Test Program (STP) of the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command, who sponsored the launch. The ICEYE-X3 radar payload had communications issues related to bus communications. These were reportedly solved.[16]

The fourth and fifth satellite, ICEYE-X4 (ICEYE POC4, COSPAR 2019-038D) and ICEYE-X5 (ICEYE POC5, COSPAR 2019-038C) were launched on 5 July 2019 by a Soyuz-2-1b rocket from Vostochny Cosmodrome Site 1S.[17]

Next launch occurred on September 28, 2020, with Soyuz-2-1v from Plesetsk. This put ICEYE-X6 and ICEYE-X7 satellites into orbit.[18] On 24 January 2021 three new satellites (ICEYE-X8, ICEYE-X9 and ICEYE-X10) were launched from Cape Canaveral SLC40 as part of record setting Falcon 9 Flight 106 (i.e. Transporter-1 mission).[19][20] One of these, the ICEYE-X10, is actually a US-built version of the ICEYE satellites developed by R2 Space for the US government and has been renamed XR-1.[21]

The cooperation between SpaceX and ICEYE continued with 6 more satellites launched with Falcon 9 Block 5 rockets, 4 on 6 June 2021 as part of the Transporter-2 mission (ICEYE-X11, ICEYE-X12, ICEYE-X13 and ICEYE-X15)[22] and 2 on 13 January 2022 as part of the Transporter-3 mission (ICEYE-X14 and ICEYE-X16).[23]

ICEYE is attempting to develop a satellite constellation of 18 microsatellites equipped with synthetic-aperture radars in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).[24] ICEYE uses commercially available off-the-shelf components as much as possible, despite increased risk of hardware failure.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Amos, Jonathan (12 January 2018). "Finnish start-up ICEYE's radical space radar solution". BBC News. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Space startup ICEYE just launched Finland's first-ever commercial satellite into orbit". Business Insider Nordic. 12 January 2018. Archived from the original on 17 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  3. ^ ICEYE (3 March 2016). "ICEYE: ARCTIC PASSION" (PDF). Aker Arctic. p. 2. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  4. ^ Laurila, Pekka; Modrzewski, Rafal; Cheng, Tao; Campbell, Brad; Yanni, Victor Garas (2016). "Validation of ICEYE Small Satellite SAR Design for Ice Detection and Imaging". All Days. doi:10.4043/27447-MS.
  5. ^ ICEYE. "ICEYE Granted 2.4M Euros from European Union's Horizon 2020 SME Instrument". www.iceye.com. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  6. ^ a b "The Finnish Engineering Award". tek.fi. 9 November 2015.
  7. ^ "Suomalainen insinöörityöpalkinto avaruuden valloittajille". lehti.tek.fi.
  8. ^ Törmänen, Eeva. "Suomalainen insinöörityöpalkinto avaruustekniikalle: Kaikki alkoi, kun kesällä 2009 opiskelijoille piti saada tekemistä – "Siitä se lähti"". tekniikkatalous.fi.
  9. ^ "ICEYE's one-meter Spotlight becomes commercially available". spacenews.com. 16 October 2019.
  10. ^ Sale of Finnish microsatellite to Brazil raises criticism Yle. 2021.
  11. ^ Lançados dois satélites do Projeto Lessonia da Força Aérea Brasileira May 26, 2022
  12. ^ "Ukraine gains enhanced access to Iceye imagery and data". SpaceNews. 18 August 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  13. ^ ICEYE Signs Contract to Provide Government of Ukraine with Access to Its SAR Satellite Constellation, ICEYE, August 18, 2022
  14. ^ "ICEYE X1". space.skyrocket.de.
  15. ^ "ICEYE X2". space.skyrocket.de.
  16. ^ "Harbinger (ICEYE X3)". space.skyrocket.de.
  17. ^ "ICEYE X4, X5". space.skyrocket.de.
  18. ^ "Avaruusesineiden rekisteri / Register över rymdföremål / Registry of Space Objects (of Finland)" (PDF) (in Finnish, Swedish, and English). The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tem.fi. 26 November 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  19. ^ "Smallsat Rideshare Missions : Dedicated Missions - January 24, 2021: SpaceX Transporter-1 (143 satellites), SSO". elonx.net. 24 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  20. ^ "ICEYE Establishes World's Top-Performing Persistent Monitoring Satellite Capabilities with Three New SAR Spacecraft Successfully Launched". iceye.com. 25 January 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  21. ^ "XR 1, ..., 8 (ICEYE X10)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  22. ^ Lentz, Danny (29 June 2021). "SpaceX successfully launches Transporter 2 mission with 88 satellites". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  23. ^ Clark, Stephen (13 January 2022). "SpaceX launches 105 customer satellites on third Transporter rideshare mission". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  24. ^ European Space Agency teams with ICEYE Finnish start-up. BBC News 26 March 2018.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ICEYE&oldid=1124815636"