During the World Space Business Week (WSBW), Space Voyaging had the opportunity to interview Mr. Motoyuki Arai, Founder & CEO of Japanese Synspective Inc., who shared some insights on current activities and future plans.
Founded in 2018, Synspective is already making a mark in the Earth observation market with its constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites. Born from the Japanese ImPACT program, the company acquires and delivers satellite data and various analytics solutions for disaster response and management, national security, and environmental monitoring.
Their platform, StriX, features a deployable SAR antenna in a compact 100kg class satellite; allowing for a significant reduction in production and launch costs compared to classical SAR solutions.
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An important year
With two satellites launched and the closing of a Series C investment round, 2024 has so far been a successful year for Synspective. Last August, with the mission Owl For One, One For Owl, Rocket Lab successfully deployed the fifth overall StriX satellite for Synspective. Back in June, the company signed an agreement for 10 additional Electron launches.
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Arai emphasized the importance of choosing Rocket Lab over other options to launch their first satellites. According to Synspective’s CEO, Electron provides great flexibility in selecting precise orbits to meet the requirements of the Japanese defense sector, which remains their primary customer at the moment. Mahia Peninsula launch site offers significant advantages in reaching the 500 km Sun Synchronous Orbit targeted by StriX satellites; allowing for an almost direct orbit injection route.
Additionally, thanks to the established partnership with Rocket Lab, they can rely on greater flexibility in scheduling launches — an important aspect during the “activation” phase of production for a young company like Synspective.
Arai added: “At Synspective, we expected the success of many new emerging launch providers in recent years, which would have offered us more options. However, especially in Japan, there hasn’t been much progress so far in the private launch sector. […] In the next 2/3 years, we will face a shortage of launch opportunities”
Nevertheless, Arai didn’t exclude the possibility of choosing rideshare missions in the future, to boost the launch of their 30 satellite constellation.
Additionally, in June, Synspective raised 7 billion yen ($44 million) in Series C funding. The newly raised capital is crucial for increasing satellite production capabilities and expanding the company globally. To support iterative manufacturing, a new factory was launched in 2024, thus paving the way for parallel production of the new StriX satellites.
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Data acquisition, processing, and distribution
Arai underlined Synspective’s capability of securing a fully in-house process for data collection and processing. This allows the company to provide a stable service with continuous data availability for customers, and at higher quality.
He stated: “The in-house analytics development technology is our strength compared with our competitors. Currently, there are many new SAR analytics players in the North American and European markets, but they have to buy the SAR data from the main operators. Therefore, these companies risk facing a data shortage, as most SAR imagery data is currently purchased by government entities.”
The future of the SAR constellation
As stated by Synspective’s CEO, the company currently aims to develop a constellation of 30 satellites. However, this number is expected to increase after 2029, driven by significant national programs and business expansion in Southeast Asia including India and Australia with MOUs already in place with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Arai provided also some interesting insights on the performance of their service; with the assets fully operational in space the system will be capable of delivering data to the end user in less than 30 minutes from tasking. An impressive results, considering the importance that time effectiveness plays in the use cases of their service. These performances, as Arai highlighted, are set to drastically improve as inter-satellite communication will be deployed in the upcoming years.
StriX platform already provides high-quality resolution data thanks to its two acquisition modes: Stripmap for large area coverage and Spotlight Mode for detailed sub-meters ground resolution. These capabilities will be further enhanced with future-generation satellites. Arai emphasized the important role their assets played during the earthquake that occurred in Japan this year.
The latest launches are delivering the second generation of StriX. However, starting next year, the third generation will be deployed, which will continuously be improved with new features to meet new customers’ demands. Two different versions will be developed over the next three years.
Mr. Arai shared his forecast for the future of the sector: “Many SAR data providers lack analytical capabilities. In the next 10 years, service reliability will be crucial in determining which companies will survive. In the end, only 4 or 5 players will remain.”
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Why SAR over other technologies?
For several years, Dr. Motoyuki Arai specialized in researching energy and agriculture solutions for business development in developing countries and areas affected by natural disasters.
During his international experience, Arai realized the importance of collecting high-quality imagery data for scientific progress in these regions and sought innovative solutions for data collection. Thanks to Japan’s government R&D initiative ImPACT, Motoyuki co-founded Synspective with the goal of leveraging SAR technology for disaster mitigation and infrastructure development in growing economies.
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