The People's Satellite () is an

ICEYE ICEYE Ltd. (natively ICEYE Oy) is a Polish-Finnish microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain Sequence motif, DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–5 ...

satellite acquired by the

Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation () is a Ukrainian charitable organization that specializes in helping the Ukrainian Defense Forces and civilians affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is engaged in the purchase and supply of vehicles, unmanned ...

for the needs of the

Armed Forces of Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

. It was called "people's" because it was purchased entirely with money donated by Ukrainians and people from various sovereign countries.

Fundraising campaign

The deal was implemented after a series of fundraising projects to purchase “People’s Bayraktar” in June 2022. The Serhiy Prytula Foundation and blogger Ihor Lachenkov launched the initiative to raise funds and buy three Bayraktar TB2 drones. Ukrainians collected ₴600 million in a matter of days. The Turkish company

Baykar Baykar is a private Turkish defence company specialising in UAVs, C4I and artificial intelligence. Name Baykar is a portmanteau of the words Bayraktar Kardeşler (''Bayraktar Brothers''). The company presently operates under the names "Bayk ...

provided three

Bayraktar TB2 Bayraktar TB2 (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Standard-bearer TB2'') is a Medium-altitude long-endurance UAV, medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operati ...

drones free of charge. The Foundation started to look for ways to spend the collected money in the most efficient way for the needs of the Ukrainian army. The decision to purchase the satellite was made after negotiations with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine, and the

General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine () is the military staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is the central organ of the Armed Forces Administration and oversees operational management of the armed forces under the Ministry of De ...

. Ukrainian space entrepreneur

Max Polyakov Maksym "Max" Polyakov (born 30 June 1977) is an international technology entrepreneur, investor, economist, and philanthropist from Ukraine. Polyakov is a general partner in the venture fund Noosphere Ventures Partners LP which invests in a numb ...

, founder of EOS Data Analytics, was involved in negotiations due to his expertise in the satellite market. In March 2022, at the beginning of the full-scale

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Max Polyakov asked Earth Observation firms and space agencies that collect satellite imagery to share recent and real-time high-to-medium resolution optical and radar satellite imagery with Ukraine. EOS DA offered its capabilities to process that data.

Agreement details

On August 18, 2022, ICEYE announced an agreement with the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation. As a result of the agreement, ICEYE provided the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine full access to one of its satellites, which is undisclosed due to security reasons. Also, ICEYE provided access to its constellation for tasking over Ukraine and neighboring territories. Additionally, ICEYE provided 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.

Characteristics

The resolution of satellite devices starts from 0.25 meters per pixel, depending on the area covered by the image. One picture can cover an area of up to . The satellite is located at an altitude of above the Earth's surface. The satellite operates in a

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

. It makes 15 orbits around the Earth in a day and moves at a speed of approximately . With the help of the ICEYE satellite, Ukraine can receive images in a few hours from the moment of image acquisition in space.

Reported results

On September 29, 2022,

Oleksii Reznikov Oleksii Yuriiovych Reznikov (, ; born 18 June 1966) is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician who served as the List of Ministers of Defense (Ukraine), Minister of Defence of Ukraine from 4 November 2021 until his dismissal on 5 September 2023. ...

, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, reported that during the first two days of the satellite's operation, more than 60 units of enemy military equipment were discovered. On March 9, 2023, The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine reported that during the 5 months of use of the ICEYE satellite, employees of the agency detected 360 tents of the Russian military on Ukrainian land, as well as 7,321 objects of Russian military and special equipment.

References

{{Russian invasion of Ukraine, Reactions Military satellites Military of Ukraine Ukrainian responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine Satellites of Ukraine

Fundraising campaign

Agreement details

Characteristics

Reported results

See also

References