The People's Satellite (Ukrainian: Народний супутник, romanized: Narodnyy suputnyk) is an ICEYE satellite acquired by the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It was called "people's" because it was purchased entirely with money donated by Ukrainians and people from various sovereign countries.[1][2]

Fundraising campaign

The deal was implemented after a series of fundraising projects to purchase “People’s Bayraktar” in June 2022.[3][4]

The Serhiy Prytula Foundation and blogger Ihor Lachenkov launched the initiative to raise funds and buy three Bayraktar TB2 drones.[5][6]

Ukrainians collected ₴600 million in a matter of days.[7][8] The Turkish company Baykar provided three Bayraktar TB2 drones free of charge.[9] The Foundation started to look for ways to spend the collected money in the most efficient way for the needs of the Ukrainian army.[10]

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.[11]

Ukrainian space entrepreneur Max Polyakov, founder of EOS Data Analytics, was involved in negotiations due to his expertise in the satellite market.[12][13]

In March 2022, at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, 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.[14] EOS DA offered its capabilities to process that data.[15]

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.[16][17]

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.[18]

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 225 km2 (87 sq mi). The satellite is located at an altitude of 500–600 km (310–370 mi) above the Earth's surface.[19]

The satellite operates in a Sun-synchronous orbit. It makes 15 orbits around the Earth in a day and moves at a speed of approximately 7.5 km/s (17,000 mph).[20]

With the help of the ICEYE satellite, Ukraine can receive images in a few hours from the moment of image acquisition in space.[21]

Reported results

On September 29, 2022, Oleksii Reznikov, 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.[22][23][24]

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.[25][26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Cole, Brendan (26 November 2022). "Ukraine's "people's satellite" helping expose Russian equipment: Kyiv". Newsweek. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  2. ↑ "ICEYE satellite, purchased for donations of Ukrainians, helped to detect and destroy over seven thousand units of Russian equipment — the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine :: Свідомі". svidomi.in.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  3. ↑ "Почали "смикати" після прикладу Литви, – Притула про те, як з'явилась ідея купити "Байрактари"". 24 Канал (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation now has full access to all ICEYE's systems as well as purchasing a satellite with project funds from the People's Bayraktar – SatNews". news.satnews.com. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  5. ↑ "Who is fundraising for Bayraktar drones for the victory of Ukraine? | InVenture". inventure.com.ua. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  6. ↑ ""There will be a lot of noise": Charity foundation buys satellite with money raised by Ukrainians". Ukrainska Pravda. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  7. ↑ "In three days, Ukrainians raised 600 million UAH to purchase Bayraktar TB2". Militarnyi. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "Prytula: Ukrainians raised UAH 600 million for four Bayraktars in three days". babel.ua. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  9. ↑ "Turkey's Baykar to donate three UAVs to Ukraine after crowdfunding campaign". Reuters. 27 June 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  10. ↑ Скляревська, Гала (19 August 2022). "Супутник наш. Що придбав фонд Сергія Притули за 600 мільйонів гривень та навіщо?". ms.detector.media (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  11. ↑ "Це справжній "космос". Що отримає Україна завдяки "народному супутнику"". nv.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  12. ↑ "Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation now has full access to all ICEYE's systems as well as purchasing a satellite with project funds from the People's Bayraktar – SatNews". news.satnews.com. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  13. ↑ "Це справжній "космос". Що отримає Україна завдяки "народному супутнику"". nv.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  14. ↑ "Ukraine crisis: Satellite data firm asks for war images". BBC News. 2 March 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  15. ↑ Hanneke Weitering (1 March 2022). "Ukrainian entrepreneur calls for faster, better satellite data to help fight Russian invasion". Space.com. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  16. ↑ "ICEYE Provides Ukraine with Access to Its SAR Satellite Constellation". www.iceye.com. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  17. ↑ "The Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation purchased a satellite from the ICEYE for Ukrainian intelligence". Militarnyi. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  18. ↑ Werner, Debra (18 August 2022). "Ukraine gains enhanced access to Iceye imagery and data". SpaceNews. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  19. ↑ "Що за супутник купив Притула і як він допоможе ЗСУ". BBC News Україна (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  20. ↑ "Фонд Сергія Притули "купив" супутник. Що українські військові зможуть побачити із космосу — Forbes.ua". forbes.ua (in Ukrainian). 18 August 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  21. ↑ "Бачить площу до 225 кв. км: у компанії Макса Полякова розповіли про характеристики супутника ICEYE". LIGA (in Ukrainian). 19 August 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  22. ↑ "Over 60 units of enemy equipment detected in first two days of operation of ICEYE satellite acquired by Ukrainians – Reznikov". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  23. ↑ Post, Kyiv. "Satellite Purchased by Volunteers Exceeds Expectations". Get the Latest Ukraine News Today - KyivPost. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  24. ↑ "Crowdfunded Ukrainian satellite has helped destroy more Russian armored vehicles than its own cost". english.nv.ua. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  25. ↑ "Наданий ГУР МО України космічний апарат "ICEYE", придбаний за пожертви українців, допоміг виявити та знищити тисячі одиниць ворожої техніки". gur.gov.ua. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  26. ↑ "'People's satellite' already proving its value to Ukrainian military intelligence". english.nv.ua. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
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