Asia Pacific Satellite Inc announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICEYE OY to cooperate in Korea's New Space Market. Ice Eye is the world's leading company with Small Satellite Synthetic-aperature Radar (SAR) technology. The agreement includes that ICEYE will provide SAR satellite imagery to Asia Pacific Satellite Inc, and cooperate with each other for projects using small SAR satellite technology in Korea.

ICEYE successfully launched its second radar imaging satellite, ICEYE-X2, in early December 2018, drawing great attention from the global earth observation market. The launch of this satellite is the first step toward establishing the SAR Satellite Constellation to provide reliable satellite imagery by observing any area of ​​the Earth even at night or when visibility is not secured by thick clouds. It was.

ICEYE provides commercial satellite image data services to government agencies and corporate customers, and is increasing its SAR satellite fleet, with up to five additional satellites already launched in 2019. ICEYE's small SAR satellite is developed and launched to provide SAR images with a resolution of up to 1m at low cost.

In addition to the small SAR satellite business, Asia Pacific Satellite Inc is also participating in the design and production of payload device data processing equipment for the SAR satellites Arirangsat 6 and Arirang 7, an electro-optical satellite, and the main body of the lunar orbiter. It is also the host of the performance verification small satellite to be mounted on the Korean launch vehicle.

Although the micro-satellite market is still in its infancy in Korea, the market analysis agency Market and Market expects it to grow to $3.5 billion by 2022.

Asia Pacific Satellite Inc. Chairman Ryu Jang-soo said, “Through continuous R&D, we will preempt the payload equipment technology, which is the core field of artificial satellites. We will continue to work hard to become competitive.”