New Delhi: Finnish satellite imaging major ICEYE plans to manufacture its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in India for the world, and is willing to build and launch them from here as well, its founder and Chief Executive Officer Rafal Modrzewski has said.
This move comes as the company, whose client list includes governments of the US, Germany, Brazil, Japan and several others, seeks to expand its footprint in the rapidly growing Indian space and defence market.
The company, which currently provides satellite imagery to Indian government agencies, including the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), is looking at a range of business models for India. This includes expanding the supply of individual images directly to the armed forces to leasing satellites and eventually building sovereign constellations that can be owned and operated by the Indian government.
“Our intention is to build satellites in India… We want to build the satellite in India,” said Modrzewski, speaking to a small group of select journalists in the Capital on Tuesday evening.
ICEYE is already setting up its Indian operations, as reported by ThePrint earlier, and has about 150 Indians working across the company globally.
The company is now looking at building a local supply chain and manufacturing capability, beginning with subsystems and eventually moving to complete satellites.
The CEO said the Indian facility would not be contingent on securing an order from the Indian government. “Our production is not subject to work here,” he said responding to a query by ThePrint, adding that ICEYE’s intention was to develop India as a manufacturing base for the company’s global requirements.
The company’s India proposition is also built around a ‘Make in India, make for the world’ model, rather than manufacturing exclusively for the domestic market, he said. “If the manufacturing of the satellites is cheaper, and we can do it faster, then we might as well build all the satellites in India.”
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From buying images to owning satellites
ICEYE currently operates the world’s largest constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites and provides imagery to multiple governments and other customers. Its SAR satellites can image locations during both day and night and through cloud cover.
Modrzewski said India could progressively move through different stages of engagement with the company. The first stage is an imagery service, where a customer requests an image of a particular location, he said, adding that the company already provides the service to India.
The second stage involves leasing one or more satellites, either for a defined area of interest or globally. He said in this model, the satellite can be either operated by the company staff or completely by a particular Indian client.
The third model would allow a customer to own and operate the satellite completely on their own with full sovereign rights over data and the system itself.
Modrzewski compared the first model to booking an Uber, where the customer does not know which vehicle will arrive or precisely when it will be available, while leasing a satellite is akin to having a dedicated vehicle and driver. He said that decision is taken by each country depending on its own requirements. He cited the example of Germany which moved from the imagery stage straight to a full constellation. ICEYE is building and launching a 40-satellite constellation for Germany.
Modrzewski also cited the example of Brazil which operates its own ICEYE-provided fleet, with the company helping establish the ground infrastructure.
A satellite a week
Asked what technological advantage ICEYE brings to India at a time when domestic private companies are rapidly developing their own satellite capabilities, Modrzewski pointed to a combination of resolution, speed of production and scale.
“We can build one satellite a week today,” he said, adding that a satellite costs around $25 million and can produce imagery at resolutions down to about 16 centimetres.
He argued that the competitive advantage was not simply the performance of an individual spacecraft, but the ability to produce large numbers of high-performance satellites rapidly and deploy them as a constellation.
He underlined that ICEYE has built and launched dozens of satellites for customers across several countries and has supplied systems to countries including Japan, South Korea, Germany, the UAE, Brazil, the US and Canada. “You can always say, ‘I will trade sovereignty for performance’, and that’s fine,” he said. “But the question is whether that’s what the end user needs the most.”
His remarks come as Indian private space companies such as Pixxel, Skyroot Aerospace, GalaxEye and others seek to establish indigenous capabilities across satellite manufacturing, launch and Earth observation.
ICEYE’s argument is that India does not necessarily have to choose between domestic capability and international technology. India can buy and operate its own satellites.
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Ground stations and sovereign control
A key component of ICEYE’s sovereign offering is the ground infrastructure required to control satellites and receive imagery. The company operates around 25 ground stations globally, according to Modrzewski. A ground station built from scratch for an Indian customer could take about a year, he said, although existing Indian infrastructure could potentially be adapted depending on its technical compatibility.
Once a country decides to operate its own satellites, ICEYE typically trains satellite operators for around three months. The company says this model allows a customer to control where its satellites are tasked, where imagery is downloaded and where the resulting data is sent.
In a fully sovereign ownership model, ICEYE would no longer control the spacecraft once it had been delivered to the customer. “Data goes to wherever the operator wishes to send it,” Modrzewski said.
This is also central to the company’s pitch to governments concerned about sovereignty and dependence on foreign intelligence providers.
‘Make in India, make for the world’
Modrzewski said ICEYE’s decision to expand manufacturing in India was driven by a combination of India’s engineering talent, supply-chain potential and the company’s broader strategy of distributing manufacturing across countries.
The company already manufactures satellites in Europe, the US and Japan. Modrzewski said a globally distributed production network allowed ICEYE to use different pools of engineering talent and supply chains while reducing dependence on any one country.
India, he said, had emerged as a natural location because the company already employs a large number of Indians. “If we are already going to do it, then we will see how costly and effective it will be for us to manufacture satellites here,” he said.
India supply chain
The company has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian space startup Agnikul Cosmos and is open to working with other Indian companies on both launch and satellite manufacturing.
ICEYE is also looking at Indian suppliers for components ranging from solar panels and propulsion systems to cables and onboard computers.
The company has not yet finalised its Indian supply chain, but Modrzewski said it would actively look at domestic alternatives as it expands manufacturing in the country. “We buy chips, integrated circuits, we buy aluminium, we buy some fundamental services, we buy rockets,” Modrzewski said. “If we are going to be building satellites in India, then it’s cheaper for us to source things in India than ship them from Europe or the United States, subject to them being available in India.”
He said Indian companies could contact him directly over email.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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