The Ministry of National Defence signed a contract with Creotech Instruments S.A. to engineer a constellation of four Earth observation satellites in Mikroglob system based on HyperSat platform. The project will be financed with zł 557 million ($ 140 million) from the National Reconstruction Plan (KPO) and the EUNextGeneration (NGEU) instrument of the European Union.
The first satellites are to be put in orbit in 2026 and the whole constellation will achieve readiness in 2027. They will operate on low Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) enabling passage over Earth objects at the same time with short intervals to render and transmit images in infrared and visible bands. The ground facilities included in the project will consist of mission control and data processing components. Detailed specification remains secret but is expected to resemble a similar satellite EagleEye also based on HyperSat platform and launched to Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) by SpaceX’ Falcon 9 rocket in August 2024, which creates images with resolution below 1 meter per pixel at orbital period of 95 minutes.
“So far the Polish Armed Forces were absent from the space domain but will soon become active there. The project will be realised by a Polish company and the entire system will be operated by the Polish Armed Forces. This is a breakthrough moment” said the Minister of Defence Kosiniak-Kamysz.
