Poland's MikroGlob-2, -3 and -4 Reach Orbit on Transporter-18, Completing Four Creotech Optical Recon Satellites Order
Warsaw, 2 October 2026
Key points
- MikroGlob-2, -3 and -4 launched on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare from Vandenberg on 1 October and joined MikroGlob-1, in orbit since Transporter-17 on 7 July; Creotech Instruments reported two-way contact and telemetry from all three and the start of commissioning
- Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, deputy prime minister and defence minister, announced the launch on 2 October
- The Armament Agency ordered the four optical Earth-observation satellites from Creotech in December 2024 for about PLN 556.7 million gross; they are built on Creotech's HyperSat platform, and handover of the system to the defence ministry is planned for 31 March 2027
- They join POLSARIS, the two ICEYE-built MikroSAR radar satellites launched in March
Poland now has the optical half of its military reconnaissance constellation in orbit, built by a Polish company on its own platform, six months before the system is due to be handed over.
The order ran from signature in December 2024 to a first satellite in orbit in July 2026 and the fourth in October, about 22 months. The radar layer took a different route: Finland's ICEYE handed POLSARIS over within 12 months of contract, the company said. Optical satellites image in daylight and clear weather, radar through cloud and at night; together they give the Polish General Staff its own imagery in both conditions. No resolution has been published for MikroGlob.
Poland bought the two halves on opposite principles, radar from a foreign specialist in a year and optical from a domestic builder in nearly two, and only the second leaves it with a satellite production line. The PLN 557 million paid for four satellites and for a Polish prime that can now point to a military constellation in orbit on its own bus. Whether that line is used again is the test: a follow-on order on the HyperSat platform, from Warsaw or another buyer, would show that the money bought an industry as well as a capability. The radar layer is in Großwald's March dispatch; Signal No. 159 had the launch the next day.
Related · Poland's reconnaissance satellites
