SmartSat SAR Satellite Constellation

Smart Satellite Technology (founded May 2018, Jinan/Beijing, China) designs, builds, and operates a constellation of small SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellites branded SmartSat, targeting millimeter-level ground deformation monitoring and hour-class global revisit imagery. The company’s first satellite, SmartSat-1A, launched 22 December 2020 on a Long March 8 rocket from Wenchang. SmartSat-3A launched 10 May 2022 aboard the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft. The first dedicated SAR satellite, SmartSat-2A (also known as ‘Jigao Kechuang’), launched 3 February 2024 on a Jielong-3 (Smart Dragon-3) rocket from waters near Yangjiang, Guangdong. Smart Satellite Technology is currently building out a constellation of 48 SAR satellites intended to deliver global radar-imagery revisit within about one hour. The company holds independent intellectual property for low-Earth-orbit SAR satellite manufacturing and operations, with SAR payload technology flight-validated on both satellite and UAV platforms — the same core SAR payload technology underpins the company’s separate airborne MiniSAR product line. Core team members come from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST/Fifth Academy), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and National University of Defense Technology, with prior flight heritage on programs including Tiantong-1, the enhanced DFH-4 and DFH-5 satellite platforms, and Xiaoxingxing-1. In-orbit satellites (e.g. SmartSat-2A) have been used operationally for disaster response, including high-resolution radar imagery support during Typhoon flooding events in Guangxi and Taiwan.