Photo courtesy of Horizon

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) is giving a £1.2 million ($1.46 million) grant to Horizon Technologies for the Amber Phoenix Mission as the UK Government looks to boost its capabilities in the area of maritime intelligence. The Phoenix Mission will see another Amber RF (Radio Frequency) Earth Observation (EO) payload launched into orbit in mid-2024.

Amber aims to bring something new in the arena of EO constellations. Horizon’s Amber payload detects, geolocates, and demodulates maritime RF (Radars and SatPhones) signals from ‘dark vessels’. Amber is a maritime intelligence data service. Amber is ‘always on’, and every Amber satellite/payload continuously covers about 3 percent of the world’s surface at all times. The Amber Phoenix Mission satellite is to be the first of a proposed constellation of over 20 Amber payloads in orbit to provide worldwide RF data to the JMSC and other customers with 30-minute latency.

Previously, Horizon Technologies’ original Amber payload was one of eight small satellites lost on the Virgin Orbit failed launch in January this year. This was part of the Satellite Applications Catapult IOD-3 program for which Horizon Technologies was competitively selected in 2019.

“Tracking vessels attempting to avoid detection is a complex challenge, but one that Horizon Technologies can help solve with their ground-breaking technology. Our support for the new Amber Phoenix Mission will develop a new capability to improve space-based maritime intelligence data services and catalyst further investment into the growing UK space sector. I’m looking forward to seeing Horizon Technologies launch many more satellites in the future,” Paul Bate, CEO, UKSA, said in a statement.