Space meets New Zealand's aviation and ocean innovators

ICEYE's approach to New Zealand goes beyond government conversations. Building sovereign capability locally means working with the companies already building New Zealand's aviation, maritime and ocean technology base, so the space layer connects to what is already running on the ground and at sea. Two recent visits show what that looks like in practice.

Marops

Marops builds bespoke software and hardware for aviation and marine systems, working with government agencies and manufacturers to integrate that technology into aeronautical and marine platforms. Its Training and Simulation division adds the other half of the equation: training videos, e-learning content and simulators that keep operators and staff current on procedures. The company pairs technical integration work with the workforce training that makes it usable.

That combination is what makes Marops a natural fit for ICEYE. Space-based SAR data is only useful if it reaches the platforms and people who need it, in a form they are trained to act on. ICEYE and Marops are exploring how to integrate ICEYE's space-based capabilities with Marops' air and maritime systems and its defence training experience, connecting the satellite layer to the aircraft, vessels and operators using the data.

Warren Young, CEO, Marops, and Kheng Yuen, Vice President Missions, Australia & New Zealand, ICEYE.

Seascape Intelligence

Seascape Intelligence, based in Auckland, is a New Zealand ocean monitoring company built around synthetic aperture radar expertise. It is working on two main lines of research and development.One is a space-enabled search and rescue capability using passive, electronics-free radar reflectors that make life rafts detectable from space, even when an EPIRB fails or isn't carried. The other turns satellite radar data into intelligence on sea surface conditions, environmental change and maritime activity.

The overlap with ICEYE is direct: both companies work in SAR, and Seascape Intelligence's planned downstream products depend on the kind of persistent radar coverage ICEYE's constellation provides. It is a New Zealand company already doing sophisticated work in the same domain, applying it to search and rescue and maritime monitoring problems the country cares about.

Engagements like these are how ICEYE builds sovereign capability in a new market: not by bringing a system in from outside, but by connecting it to the companies already solving local problems with the relevant expertise.

Ella Fasciana, Head of Search and Rescue, Seascape Intelligence; Kenny Yuen, Vice President Missions, Australia & New Zealand, ICEYE; and Dr Thomas Dowling, Chief Scientific Officer, Seascape Intelligence.