1/6/2023 - Written By Caleb Henry
Poland is poised to become one of the few countries with very high-resolution satellites. Airbus is supplying two satellites based on its Pleiades Neo platform (Pleiades Neo can natively image at 30cm resolution, but the specifics for Poland’s pair haven’t been confirmed). It’s common for nations with confrontational neighbors to procure powerful satellite imaging systems (see Israel, Japan and South Korea), so Poland’s move here isn’t a surprise. Russia's invasion of Ukraine was sufficient provocation for Poland, which has historically been on high alert regarding their neighbor to the east. What is modestly surprising is Poland’s pivot back to Europe and away from China. Poland signed a Belt and Road agreement with China in 2015, and a year later announced plans to jointly build satellites.
We say only “modestly surprising” because Polish-Chinese relations deteriorated pretty quickly last year when Poland condemned Russian aggression while China stayed silent. It will be interesting to watch the impact of this large national investment on Poland’s emerging space industry. Poland is home to SatRev, a startup planning an EO constellation of more than 1,000 satellites. The European Space Agency relies on some Polish contractors to support its Copernicus remote sensing program, and in October formed a Business Incubation Center with the goal of incubating 35 companies over the next five years.
SOURCE: https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-01-airbus-to-provide-poland-with-a-very-high-resolution-optical