The Argentine aerospace company VENG and the American company Ursa Space signed an agreement within the framework of the Satellite 2022 conference, in Washington DC, to promote the commercialization of scenes from the Argentine SAOCOM satellites at a global level.
Within the framework of the Satellite fair, which takes place this week in the city of Washington, the national company VENG and the company Ursa Space Systems, signed an agreement so that the scenes of the Argentine satellites SAOCOM can be commercialized from the platform American distribution.
Veng informed, through a statement, that this agreement powers the virtual constellation of Ursa Space Sytems, the world’s largest single window for commercial satellite imagery comprising multiple providers of SAR (synthetic aperture radar), radio frequency (RF) and opticians.
Now, Ursa customers will be able to search and request SAOCOM satellite imagery, all within one centralized platform.
The SAOCOM 1A and 1B satellites, whose acronym stands for CONAE’s “Argentine Microwave Observation Satellites”, were launched into space from the United States in 2018 and 2020, respectively, aboard a Space X company Falcon 9 rocket, which put them into orbit.
Both satellites have a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) antenna that receives L-band information. This is the first time that L-band SAR images will be available in the virtual constellation of Ursa Space.
This radar technology allows information to be detected in any weather condition and time (day and night) and specifically the L Band, unlike other types of bands, manages to penetrate the vegetation and the soil surface, being able to generate humidity maps of vital importance for the farming.
VENG is the company designated by CONAE that, since 2020, markets products based on satellite information generated by the SAOCOM constellation.
Currently, Argentina is the only country in the Americas that sells satellite scenes in Band L through its own satellite.
“Incorporating the SAOCOM scenes, especially with the L-Band frequency, gives our Virtual Constellation a level of diversity that is particularly notable for the agriculture industry,” said Adam Maher, CEO and co-founder of Ursa Space.
“With more opportunities for real-world applications, this partnership will accelerate both companies’ position in many vertical markets,” he added.
For his part, Adrián Unger, deputy manager of Satellite Information at VENG, explained: “We believe that this agreement is very important for our country, for CONAE and for VENG because it involves signing with a leading US company in the satellite information market. . URSA Space’s distribution technology is highly advanced since it allows different types of information to be consulted simultaneously on the same geographical area”.
“Being part of their distribution platform will allow the information generated by SAOCOM to reach customers and niches in a much faster and more effective way,” added Unger.
VENG signed in December 2020 an agreement with the Italian company e-GEOS, owned by the Italian Space Agency (20%) and the Telespazio company (80%).
From this agreement, E-GEOS strengthened its offer of satellite products throughout the world, given that, previously, it already marketed the products generated by the four Italian Cosmo-SkyMed satellites whose radar technology is in Band X.
Thus, since the signing of this agreement, it can combine both technologies to respond to the needs of its customers. These four satellites, together with the two SAOCOM satellites, make up the Italian-Argentine Satellite System for Emergency Management (SIASGE), created by CONAE and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
On the other hand, during the second half of 2021, VENG signed agreements with the companies Restec (Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan), from Japan; MDA, from Canada; and Bsed (Beijing Smart Earth Digital), from China.
Ursa Space is a global satellite intelligence infrastructure company that provides business and government decision makers with access to on-demand analytics solutions.
Through its network of radar satellites and data fusion expertise, Ursa Space detects real-time changes in the physical world to expand transparency. Its personalized subscription services allow you to access satellite imagery and analytical results without geographical, political or climatic limitations.
VENG is a high value-added technology services and development company, specializing in space activities. With more than 15 years of experience, and a current payroll of 450 collaborators, VENG participates in strategic projects of the Argentine National Space Plan, such as the development of launch vehicle prototypes for access to space and the integration and testing of satellite components, among which stand out, the radar antennas of the SAOCOM satellites.
On the other hand, it is dedicated to the operation of two earth stations in the country, in the provinces of Córdoba and Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands, and also satellite mission control centers.
VENG has the exclusive worldwide representation of the products of CONAE’s SAOCOM mission in the market of satellite information for earth observation.
The company is constituted as a public limited company with majority state participation through CONAE.
