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Satnews Daily
October 10th, 2019

Alliance for SAR Satellites Formed by KSAT and Synspective


KSAT and Synspective are announcing their global alliance — Synspective Inc., will develop a constellation of small, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites over the next few years that will be aimed at providing solutions and data for the global market using high resolution data — the first satellite is planned to launch in 2020.

The partnership between the two companies will secure Synspective’s cost effective ground support for their constellation, during LEOP and the operational phase. KSAT will be able to include SAR data and applications from the future constellation in their already extensive SAR portfolio. With their integrated network of ground stations uniquely located for minimal data latency, and agreements with all available SAR missions, KSAT has become a global “power house” for commercial SAR.


Left, Rolf Skatteboe, President and CEO of KSAT. Right Motoyuki Arai, Founder and CEO, Synspective Inc.

The constellation will be supported on the KSAT Lite network where KSAT provides ground Station as-a-Service (GaaS) to the operators through their global integrated network of ground stations. KSAT Lite is optimized for small satellites and large constellations. This easy-to-use, ever expanding network, both in number of locations, bands, customers and capabilities, grows as the constellations grow, the economy of scale benefiting each individual operator.

Motoyuki Arai, CEO of Synspective Inc., said the company recognizes the value of KSAT's vast global network as well as their leadership in the space industry and believe that by working together the firms can get one step closer to achieving mission and worldwide coverage. He added that in order to expand the SAR market in New Space, synergistic collaborations are essential.

Rolf Skatteboe, President and CEO of KSAT, added that this agreement marks the start of what could be a long and fruitful relationship with Synspective. Closely following the new and exciting companies coming up in the Japanese NewSpace market, KSAT is dedicated to supporting the Japanese space industry and looking forward to collaborating on data and land-based SAR applications from Synspective in the future.