Space News
ST. LOUIS — The Trump administration’s push to modernize missile defense could open new opportunities for the commercial remote-sensing industry, according to Eric Jensen, CEO of Iceye U.S., a subsidiary of Finnish radar satellite operator Iceye.
As part of the “Golden Dome for America” executive order that directs an overhaul of the U.S. missile defense architecture, the administration has emphasized greater use of commercial technologies. Jensen argues that commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, like those deployed by Iceye, could play a supporting role alongside the infrared (IR) sensors traditionally used by the U.S. military to detect missile launches.
“We have a diverse set of sensors that are already in orbit today, providing great utility daily in operations across the world,” Jensen told SpaceNews. “And while they are not designed to meet all of the requirements that would be a part of the Golden Dome architecture, they can clearly provide an input … that would result in much better persistence, much better timeliness of information, much more accuracy.”
