Maritime situational awareness has never been more critical, and the ability to detect, identify and track dark vessels from space is essential. KSAT will bring its already world-class vessel detection service into the future, by launching the platform Vake Powered by KSAT, that monitors areas and vessels of interest from a variety of different data sources.
The platform combines KSAT’s trusted satellite antenna network and maritime expertise with VAKE’s advanced AI and visualization designed to accelerate maritime decision-making.
KSAT is uniquely positioned in the space industry, with decades of experience. Our vertical integration in the value chain has allowed us to internalize the whole process of tasking, collecting, processing, exploiting, and disseminating information. By combining Ground Network, Earth Observation, and Satellite Operations services under one roof, we can dynamically reschedule and retask during contingency events.
KSAT is the world’s largest satellite ground station provider and a global leader in satellite-based maritime solutions, trusted for decades. In 2024, KSAT acquired VAKE, an innovative company with deep expertise in AI-powered analytics and intuitive user interfaces, developed in close collaboration with European coast guards and navies. We leverage our high-quality historical database together with VAKE to train AI solutions that can detect, describe, and recognize vessels, and highlight anomalies within your Area of Interest (AOI).
Better situational awareness
The new platform delivers space-powered maritime situational awareness designed to be easy to access, integrate, and use.
– Space is an important contributor and piece of the puzzle when building the recognized maritime picture since it provides large area coverage, high richness in details and can make collections over areas of interest that are inaccessible from other platforms like drones or airplanes. We want to make the space domain convenient for users to draw upon through timely, relevant and reliable data compilation, which is available through one single platform where it will even be possible to task new satellite collection, Karstein Ringjord, Director of Maritime Situational Awareness at KSAT says.
Faster decision-making
The KSAT acquisition of VAKE has created synergies that will unlock completely new opportunities over the coming years. The result is not just faster access to information, but a fundamentally shorter and more reliable decision cycle.
– Through our integrated value chain, KSAT delivers 15-minute collection-to-dissemination timelines across satellite operators. The ambition is clear: push space-based information delivery below five minutes by 2030, regardless of operator, orbit, or platform. Everything easily and securely available for our users, Kristian Lindgård Knutdzon, EVP Earth Observation says.