X-band SAR microsatellite for all-weather, day-and-night Earth observation — land displacement monitoring, infrastructure change detection, disaster assessment; part of Synspective's growing commercial constellation.
StriX SAR Satellite
X-band SAR microsatellite for all-weather, day-and-night Earth observation — land displacement monitoring, infrastructure change detection, disaster assessment; part of Synspective's growing commercial constellation.
Description
StriX is Synspective's commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microsatellite constellation, providing cloud-penetrating, day-and-night imaging of the Earth's surface in X-band. Unlike optical satellites that require cloud-free, daylight conditions, SAR satellites transmit their own microwave pulses and measure the reflected signal — enabling reliable imaging through cloud cover, rain, smoke, and darkness, critical for disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, and persistent surveillance applications.
The StriX platform is designed by Synspective's in-house engineering team as a compact, low-cost SAR satellite for commercial constellation deployment. The constellation began with demonstration satellite StriX-α (launched December 2020 on JAXA's SS-520 vehicle), followed by StriX-β (launched 2022, Rocket Lab) and StriX-1 (launched 2022, Rocket Lab Electron), each representing successive improvements in resolution, coverage width, and data quality. Synspective is expanding the StriX constellation toward high-revisit global coverage targeted at reaching dozens of satellites.
StriX satellites support Synspective's analytics products including the Land Displacement Monitor (millimeter-scale ground deformation measurement via interferometric SAR or InSAR) and Area Change Detector. Primary applications include monitoring of road and tunnel subsidence, dam safety, high-rise building settlement, mining operations, landslide risk zones, coastal erosion, and disaster damage assessment following floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
Specifications
| Sensor Type | Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), X-band |
|---|---|
| Imaging Modes | Spotlight, Stripmap |
| Resolution | 1–3 m (mode dependent) |
| All-Weather | Yes (cloud/rain/night penetrating) |
| Orbit | Sun-synchronous LEO |
| Constellation Status | Growing (StriX-α, β, 1 + ongoing launches) |
| Analytics | Land Displacement Monitor (InSAR), Area Change Detector |