Ukrainians Crowdfund High-Res Satellite Imageries from Finland's ICEYE

The money collected from Ukrainians to buy Bayraktar TB2 drones has been utilized to acquire high-technology satellite from Finnish company ICEYE.

Serhiy Prytula Charitable Foundation on June 22 announced a fundraiser among Ukrainian citizens to purchase Bayraktar drones. Total donations reached UAH 600 million ($16.2 million), enough to buy four units, in just two days.

Turkey’s Baykar, however, offered to deliver the drones free of cost. Two months later, Serhiy Prytula, founder of the foundation, announced that he had signed an agreement with ICEYE to purchase a satellite for the war-torn country.

As part of the agreement, ICEYE will transfer full capabilities of one of its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites already in orbit for the Ukraine’s use over the region. The SAR satellite will be operated by ICEYE. In addition, the company will also provide access to its constellation of SAR satellites, allowing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to receive radar satellite imagery on critical locations with a high revisit frequency.

“ICEYE owns the most developed radar satellite imaging technology in the world as of today,” Prytula said. “This agreement is a significant step in responding to the Government of Ukraine’s urgent request for critical earth observation data and it will greatly benefit our Armed Forces.”

Owning the world’s largest SAR satellite constellation, ICEYE delivers reliable Earth Observation solutions and is the only organization in the world to offer the rapid delivery of high-precision SAR satellites and data to its customers, allowing them to take full control of their mission.

At any given time, most of the Earth is covered in clouds or darkness. Unlike traditional Earth observation satellites, ICEYE’s small radar imaging satellites can form high-resolution images of areas of the Earth in daylight, at night, and through cloud cover. In other words, they can collect images and data from any part of the Earth multiple times a day, with the necessary reliability for critical decision making.

ICEYE has successfully launched 21 spacecraft to date and operates the world’s largest fleet of commercial SAR satellites.