The largest Polish satellite is already in space

Creotech Instruments, Poland’s largest manufacturer of satellites, satellite systems and components listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, has announced the launch of its largest and most advanced satellite ever – EagleEye. The satellite was launched from California’s Vandenberg base using a Falcon 9 rocket, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in partnership with operator Exolaunch. Separation of the satellite from the rocket took place at 22:14 Polish time. The purpose of the mission is to demonstrate the key functions of the EagleEye satellite system.

The satellite was launched into space on 16 August 2024 at 20:56 Polish time. The event could be followed live, thanks to an online broadcast – a link to the YouTube channel is available at https://eagle-launch.com/en/

For Creotech Instruments this is an extremely important moment, as it opens new perspectives for future Polish space missions. We feel satisfaction from a job well done, knowing that further difficult challenges lie ahead. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the whole Creotech team involved in this project. Your professional approach, extensive engineering experience and great determination have been crucial to our joint success. I would also like to thank our business partners for their cooperation in this groundbreaking project, which has a chance to introduce Poland to the elite group of countries with the capability to develop such advanced space systems – said Grzegorz Brona, PhD, CEO in Creotech Instruments SA.

EagleEye brings Poland into new technology orbits!

EagleEye is the largest Polish observation satellite ever built by Polish engineers. Its weight is about 55 kg, which corresponds to the total weight of all Polish satellites that have been built since the beginning of our participation in space exploration.

The goal of the EagleEye mission is to place the satellite in an orbit of about 510 km, from where it will soon undergo a descent manoeuvre into a Very Low Earth Orbit (VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT) of about 350 km altitude using an ion engine. This is where it will be tested to see how it can be operated and to increase the efficiency of Earth imaging.

EagleEye is a landmark project for the entire space sector. It is another great step in the development of national competence in the design, construction, integration and use of utility satellites, – said the President of the Polish Space Agency, Prof. Grzegorz Wrochna.

Poland’s newest satellite is based on a proprietary HyperSat platform, which is already a key element in a number of projects at national and European level. The platform has been designed to support satellites weighing up to 200 kg. Its parameters allow it to be adapted to the tasks and requirements of a variety of space missions. Already next year, more satellites based on this particular system are planned to be launched. However, the main element of the platform’s commercialisation will come as soon as the EagleEye system has been tested in orbit.

EagleEye has also been equipped with an optical telescope from the Polish company Scanway, which allows images of the Earth’s surface to be taken in the visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) bands.

The EagleEye mission is an excellent example of the cooperation of the Polish space sector and evidence of its intensive development in recent years. We are proud that our optical instrument in the form of the SOP200 telescope is on board the largest Polish satellite. This is an important step on the path to ever higher resolutions and quality of satellite imaging that we want to offer. I believe that the imaging from LEO and VLEO orbit will prove spectacular. I would like to thank the employees, partners, institutions and investors financing the project, it is our joint success and achievement – we have shown that Poland is ready to design, build and deliver entire space missions – Jędrzej Kowalewski, CEO in Scanway SA.

A third entity, the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), the instrument’s computer supplier, was also involved in the project.

Creotech Instruments has 12 years of experience in designing and building space subsystems. It has successfully participated in more than 40 commercial and scientific missions. The company has also participated in many ESA projects, i.e. the EXOMARS mission, JUICE on its way to Jupiter or OPS-SAT.