ICEYE Gen4 satellites now commercially available

Finland’s satellite giant ICEYE has announced the commercial availability of its fourth-generation “Gen4” satellites. The new satellites were launched into orbit aboard a SpaceX mission in March as ICEYE has set out to increase its constellation to 80 satellites by 2026, with 54 thought to already be in service. 

The new Gen4 satellites provide imagery with a resolution of up to 16 cm, a 36% increase in resolution over the 25 cm satellites introduced in December 2024. The high-resolution coverage area has been extended to 400 km, an increase from the previous 150 km. Increasing the resolution means that the imagery captured by the SAR satellites will be more detailed, empowering better analysis and situational awareness. 

Each ICEYE Gen4 satellite is capable of capturing up to 500 images per day. The imaging and downlink of data can occur simultaneously. “Its higher imaging throughput increases the per-pass image count, making sub-15-minute revisit performance more accessible,” the company states in its September 10 press release. 

The simultaneous uplink and downlink provides bandwidth up to 700 Mbs, “enabling tasking, acquisition, and delivery within the same pass for near real-time monitoring,” the company states. In a nutshell, this means that an intelligence agency could task an ICEYE Gen4 satellite to take images of a given area of the Earth and receive them soon after. 

The satellites can be acquired by national customers and governments as a sovereign capability. ICEYE stated the system, which includes the ground segment, training, and software updates, can be deployed and operational within 12 months. ICEYE was selected by the Dutch government in June to provide four satellites to the country’s MoD. Those satellites will be provided with the 25 cm resolution, but indicates the growing strength of ICEYE in providing its satellites to customers, as well as imagery from its own constellation. 

Rafal Modrzewski, co-founder and CEO of ICEYE, said that the Gen4 marks a step forward in delivering more images with higher resolution. He added that the enhanced imagery from the new satellites would further improve the company’s AI-based “Detect & Classify” product.

Calibre comment

There is a growing trend for governments to procure satellites commercially rather than building them in a bespoke fashion as was previously the case. The expensive and resource intensive government programmes remain, such as the UK’s Skynet 6, but a blended approach to space-based capabilities is now clear. This sees states procuring some satellites off the shelf – like this ICEYE offering – as well as procuring imagery from a supplier or several suppliers, and some will also develop their own satellites. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on September 10, 2025. Credit for the lead image is ICEYE.