ICEYE, a provider of natural catastrophe solutions and insights, is to collaborate with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop the next generation of Earth Observation insights to revolutionise disaster and crisis management from the vantage point of space.
The firm owns and operates the world’s largest constellation of SAR satellites, which allows it to provide a vital source of insights for government and enterprise needs in sectors such as insurance, natural catastrophe response and recovery, maritime, national security, humanitarian relief, and climate change monitoring.
ICEYE was selected by ESA to participate in the Civil Security from Space Programme (CSS), according to the announcement, this is the first CSS Partnership contract to be signed under the CSS program and aims to develop an advanced suite of natural catastrophe monitoring services.
Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA, said: “I am delighted to sign the first ESA Partnership Project with ICEYE under the Civil Security from Space Programme, supporting European efforts to use space to monitor, mitigate and resolve civil security and crisis events to keep people, infrastructures and resources safe on Earth. We look forward to working with our Finnish partner on this project.”
Under the three-year partnership, ICEYE and ESA will collaborate on the “Disaster Management from Space” project to develop a comprehensive suite of Disaster Management Solutions for effective natural catastrophe management, and an imaging service underpinned by ICEYE’s fleet.
The partnership will drive the evolution of ICEYE’s state-of-the-art hazard insights, while designing and testing the next-generation of Earth observation technology.
Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and Co-Founder at ICEYE, added: “This partnership is an opportunity to test the boundaries of natural catastrophe monitoring solutions, alongside ESA.
“The CSS programme demonstrates ESA and the European Space Sector’s commitment to building community resilience. We are proud to have been selected to participate in this programme, and to be at the forefront of the new space-based crisis observation and management era.”
The CSS programme is a new ESA multi-disciplinary programme started in November 2022 to propel the integration of Europe’s competencies and assets into monitoring, mitigating and resolving civil security and crisis events.
The programme offers European industry the opportunity to maximise the use of space capabilities in addressing challenges in civil security and crisis management.
