Author: Scanway
Publication date:
On January 25, 2024, Scanway S.A. announced that, following the delivery of the optical telescope to its partner, Creotech Instruments, for integration with the satellite platform, the telescope had successfully passed functional tests. The goal of the EagleEye project is to develop an Earth observation satellite capable of providing imagery with a resolution of approximately 1 meter from a very low Earth orbit at an altitude of approximately 350 km. Scanway is responsible for designing and manufacturing the optical telescope, which weighs nearly seven times as much as the telescope used in the STAR VIBE satellite—a mission that enabled the Company to establish its space heritage in January 2023. After integrating the optical payload with the satellite platform, the EagleEye satellite will weigh approximately 60 kg. The satellite will be launched into orbit in 2024 with the participation of Exolaunch, which is responsible for integrating the satellite with the Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX, the American company owned by Elon Musk. The EagleEye project is being carried out by Scanway in a consortium with Creotech Instruments and the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and is co-financed by the National Center for Research and Development (NCBiR) under the so-called “Fast Track” program.
– The handover of our optical payload for integration with the Creotech Instruments satellite platform marks a milestone for us in realizing our long-term product vision of supplying telescopes for increasingly larger satellites. A year ago, we established our space heritage through our own STAR VIBE mission, confirming our high level of expertise and delivering the best images from space ever obtained by Polish research instruments, with a resolution of approximately 25 meters. The EagleEye project will be equipped with a telescope capable of capturing images from a 350-km orbit with a resolution of approximately 1 meter, and the total mass of the satellite will be approximately 60 kg. This will allow us to strengthen our leading position in the space observation technology industry and place us among the top European companies with proven space heritage for large optical payloads. However, our ambitions extend even further —last November, we began a collaboration with the German company Marble Imaging, under which we are working on a multispectral payload capable of sub-1-meter resolution for a satellite weighing approximately 100 kg. The microsatellite segment—that is, satellites weighing more than 10 kg—allows us to deliver larger and more advanced payloads, which generate significantly higher margins – comments Jędrzej Kowalewski, Chairman of the Management Board of Scanway S.A.
Since 2020, Scanway has been part of the team developing Poland’s largest Earth observation microsatellite, called EagleEye. As part of the project, the company is responsible for the satellite’s optical payload—the largest observation telescope fully designed and built in Poland, featuring unique technical specifications. The telescope complies with Space 4.0 guidelines and the methodology of the European Space Agency. It will enable imaging in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) bands with a ground sample distance (GSD) of approximately 1 meter. In 2023, the telescope successfully passed environmental tests simulating space conditions at the headquarters of the Space Research Center.
Satellite imaging has a wide range of applications, including monitoring natural disasters, studying climate change, supporting agriculture and urban development, and providing information for military operations. The demand for satellites equipped with payloads capable of imaging the Earth has surged in recent years, partly as a result of a significant decrease in the costs associated with launching satellites into orbit.
– The success of our STAR VIBE satellite’s launch had a positive impact on the momentum of our business negotiations, including the number of requests for proposals. The completion of the EagleEye mission will allow us to compete even more effectively in the market for space-based observation technology providers and to supply optical payloads for large space missions as well. To meet the growing demand for our solutions, we moved our operations to a new headquarters at the beginning of the year, where we now have not only significantly more office space but, most importantly, nearly four times as much laboratory and workshop space, including approximately 110 m² dedicated to the integration and testing of optical instruments. This will allow us to undertake a greater number of projects, including those involving large-scale production, while maintaining the highest quality standards required of leading players in the space sector – says Mikołaj Podgórski, COO and co-founder of Scanway.
The telescope supplied by Scanway to its partner will be integrated with the HyperSat satellite platform from Creotech Instruments. Once this process is complete, the entire satellite will undergo functional and environmental testing. A successful test result will allow the satellite to be sent to Exolaunch, which is responsible for integrating EagleEye with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The satellite’s launch into orbit is scheduled for the turn of the first and second halves of 2024; the final date will depend on the availability of launch windows from SpaceX. The launch of the EagleEye satellite will be one of the most important events in the history of the Polish space sector.
Scanway develops and commercializes two business lines: products for the space sector (optical instruments for Earth observation and satellite self-diagnostics) and for industry (vision systems). Thanks to the STAR VIBE mission and the launch in early 2023 of a satellite equipped with a vision system and an optical telescope developed and manufactured in the company’s laboratories, Scanway has achieved what is known as Flight Heritage – has proven the reliability and functionality of its solutions in space. The Polish satellite regularly captures new images of Earth, and the Company receives the best space images ever obtained by Polish research instruments.
As part of its industrial solutions, Scanway specialises in developing proprietary vision systems for the quality control of finished products, raw materials and the production process. The Company’s product range contributes to the implementation of the Industry 4.0 philosophy through the automation and optimisation of quality control processes in sectors such as packaging and printing, the automotive industry, the food industry and the pharmaceutical sector. The hyperspectral technology used by Scanway enables continuous 100% quality control of products on high-throughput production lines, which, amongst other things, helps to reduce the customer’s production costs.