Poland joined the space superpowers by launching five military satellites. The new system is ready for research and collection of strategic data.
Last week, Poland sent five military satellites into space using the Falcon 9 rocket from the USA. Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Poland has become the first country in Central and Eastern Europe with its own military satellite reconnaissance system. Satellites are already sending data to Earth that is being analyzed. This is reported by the Warsaw correspondent TASR with reference to the PAP agency.
- Poland launched five military satellites using a Falcon 9 rocket.
- MikroSAR and PIAST satellites provide radar and optical images.
- The PIAST project was created by the Polish Military Technical University.
The Polish MikroSAR radar satellite, three PIAST satellites and the PW6U nanosatellite were on board the Falcon 9. Their task will be to acquire and process data that can be used for both the defense and the civil sector, for example when monitoring territory, transport or the environment.
Defense strategy
The MikroSAR satellite was produced by the Polish-Finnish company ICEYE in cooperation with the Polish Ministry of Defense. It can observe the Earth using radars even at night or when it is cloudy. The PIAST satellites will be used for optical sensing of the Earth and are to be part of the first Polish satellite survey system.
The SatRev company from Wroclaw also joined the mission with its PW6U nanosatellite, which is supposed to provide data for agriculture, energy and infrastructure management.
Technological capacities
A connection was successfully established with the satellites on Saturday and the first data, which are being analyzed, were sent to Earth. “Satellites are sensors. But the real work begins on the ground – the image must reach us, it must be properly analyzed, processed and used by the relevant military units,” General Mieczyslaw Bieniek said in an interview with Portal obronny published on Tuesday.
The PIAST project is a Polish research and development program implemented by the Military Technical University in cooperation with a consortium of companies and the Polish Academy of Sciences. Its goal is to build complex and independent Polish satellite capacities based on Polish technologies.
