ICEYE launches its first SAR satellite (2018)
Finnish startup ICEYE put the first under-100-kilogram synthetic aperture radar satellite in orbit, proving small spacecraft could do a job long reserved for large, expensive ones. It then scaled to a multi-satellite fleet selling all-weather imagery.
ICEYE quickly added satellites and signed commercial and government customers for flood and disaster monitoring.
It became the largest commercial SAR operator and showed the small-radar-satellite business could work.
ICEYE is Synspective's closest competitor and its template. Both bet that many small radar satellites beat a few big ones.
