Iceye, the Finnish space company known for building synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites is venturing into communication satellites — planning to build sovereign satcom satellites for governments through a new partnership with Nokia.
Iceye announced the move Thursday and said the first communications satellites are expected to be launched in 2028. An Iceye spokesperson said the existing Iceye satellite platform is “flexible” and now being used for satcom.
Iceye has a robust business in selling SAR satellites to governments and is now expanding that offering to satcom satellites by working with Nokia. The partners plan to combine Iceye’s satellite platform and constellation experience with Nokia’s networking technology experience. The partners plan to integrate the satellites, ground infrastructure, and end-user terminals.
Imagery shared by the companies shows a small, flat panel rapidly deployable terminal being used in the field, and another flat panel terminal on top of a vehicle.
The aim is to provide low-latency connectivity over priority areas for governments for use cases like defense, border security, emergency services, and disaster response. Iceye stated this offering will complement existing military and commercial networks.
“These are sovereign systems, so the customer determines the size of its constellation. A government acquires the satellites, ground segment, and terminals for full ownership and control, and sizes the system to its own mission needs. That is the distinction from a commercial service,” the spokesperson told Via Satellite. “It is the same sovereign model Iceye already delivers for Earth Observation, applied to communications.”
Nokia President and CEO Justin Hotard addressed the need for resilient connectivity across domains.
“By bringing together Nokia’s trusted networks with Iceye’s proven sovereign space capabilities, we will deliver a satellite communications capability — complementing existing terrestrial networks, and giving nations the situational awareness, connectivity, and control they need to operate with confidence in contested environments across all domains,” Hotard said in a statement.
