ICEYE-X36

ICEYE-X36 is one of a growing fleet of synthetic-aperture radar satellites operated by ICEYE, the Finnish company headquartered in Espoo that has been building out a commercial SAR constellation since its first spacecraft launched in 2018. X36 is registered as an American satellite under the company’s US arm and sits in low Earth orbit at roughly 540 to 580 kilometres altitude, the band ICEYE’s platform occupies across its fleet.

SAR microsatellites of this class — each roughly the size of a suitcase — image through cloud cover and after dark by actively illuminating the ground with their own radar signal, rather than relying on reflected sunlight. That capability is what makes them useful over an active battlefield: they can track vehicle movements and detect new positions in weather and lighting that blind optical satellites. ICEYE markets sub-metre spotlight resolution across its catalogue; detailed subsystem specifications for individual spacecraft in the series are not published.

ICEYE has supplied radar imagery to Ukraine’s armed forces since August 2022, under a cooperation agreement that began with the acquisition of a dedicated satellite via a public fundraising campaign fronted by then-digital transformation minister Mykhailo Fedorov. The arrangement was expanded in late 2024 and again in early 2026, and Ukrainian authorities reported roughly 4,100 target images delivered in 2024. ICEYE itself has not disclosed which of its satellites directly serve Ukrainian intelligence.

In October 2026 X36 drew sustained international attention after the Russian military spacecraft Kosmos-2612 — launched from Plesetsk aboard a Soyuz-2.1b on 16 April 2026 — began a series of orbital corrections aimed at a close approach. Independent orbital trackers, including Delft Technical University lecturer Marco Langbrook, logged that the Russian satellite had synchronised its period, altitude and inclination with X36 by late September and closed to a predicted 26 metres on 19 October. The US representative at the UN First Committee called the manoeuvre consistent with “testing or using orbital weapons”; the Russian delegation dismissed the accusations as absurd. Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies described the pass as deliberate and surveyed its possible purposes — inspection, radio-frequency jamming, spoofing, laser dazzling, or a demonstration of force — while noting that Kosmos-2612’s actual mission remains unknown.

Pro-Kremlin commentators have since argued that commercial satellites providing imagery to Ukraine are legitimate military targets, framing Russia’s inspector-satellite programme as a tool of “strategic deterrence”. ICEYE has not publicly reported interference with X36, and the spacecraft remained on orbit at the time of writing.