SAN ANTONIO – Ursa Space Systems is expanding its partnership with radar satellite operator Iceye of Finland.
Ursa will resell Iceye data products and the two companies will jointly develop new analytic services with data drawn from Iceye’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, Ursa and Iceye announced June 5 at the 2019 GEOINT Symposium here.
Ursa and Iceye forged their first agreement in 2018. That pact gave Ursa access to Iceye’s data archive and the ability to task Iceye’s first satellite, Iceye-X1. “The new agreement is quite a big more comprehensive,” Adam Maher, Ursa co-founder and CEO, told SpaceNews.
Iceye launched its second SAR satellite, Iceye-X2, in December. The company plans to launch as many as five more satellites in 2019, according to the Ursa-Iceye news release.
“Iceye’s image quality is fantastic,” said Derek Edinger, Ursa co-founder and chief strategy officer. “We’re excited for their constellation to go up.”
Ithaca, New York-based Ursa has forged agreements with many SAR satellite operators. Ursa pairs SAR data with other sources of information to provide customers with “economic intelligence,” Edinger said. Initially, Ursa focused on data products for the oil and gas industry but has since expanded its product line.
As Ursa’s analysis capability grows and Iceye expands its constellation, the two companies are eager to explore new applications SAR data, Edinger said.
“The global market for SAR satellite data and products is expanding rapidly, and there are no signs of it slowing down,” Rafal Modrzewski, Iceye CEO, said in a statement. “In collaboration with Ursa, we can provide even more value with reliable and actionable information of almost any point on Earth.”
