Alba Orbital Announces First Night Lights Imagery Customer

11th January 2022 - Alba Orbital, the Scottish pico-satellite pioneers, today announced McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS), the trusted catastrophe response partner to the insurance industry, as the latest organisation to enroll in Alba Orbital’s ‘Night lights early access programme’. 

Through this agreement, Mckenzie Intelligence Services will obtain first mover access to data gathered from Alba Orbital's Unicorn-2 constellation which will provide the highest resolution imagery of the Earth at night. 

On behalf of their client, Alba Orbital will be able to directly task their latest generation night light pico-satellites. MIS plans to utilize this data to provide key insights for the London Market and other P&C insurance clients through the Global Events Observer (GEO), MIS’ AI-powered exposure and claims response solution for global catastrophes. 

Forbes McKenzie, CEO of MIS said “Our strategic partnership with Alba Orbital demonstrates our continued commitment to integrate the latest technologies and data sources into our catastrophe response intelligence product. Alba Orbital's high-resolution night-time imagery will support us in providing even more high-fidelity analysis of global perils. For example, during future incidents similar to the Texas freeze which caused $15bn in insured losses, we will be able to rapidly identify those properties without power and therefore most susceptible to internal damage. Our ability to add value to individual data sets through intelligence fusion techniques continues to set us apart in the catastrophe response marketplace.”

“We are thrilled to welcome MIS onboard our night-lights early access program” said Alba Orbital Founder and Chief Executive, Tom Walkinshaw. “Our latest partnership with MIS reflects the critical need by the insurance industry for innovative solutions from space. MIS’ work as part of our early access programme serves as a compelling use case for night time satellite data as a vital tool to monitor global catastrophes.”

Three of the satellites in the Alba Orbital’s night light satellite constellation will carry MIS branding and are due to be launched into low earth orbit aboard the SpaceX Transporter 3 in January 2022. For updates on the mission, you can watch SpaceX’s livestream of the launch from their website.

About Alba Orbital

Founded in 2012, Alba Orbital (UK, USA, Germany) is a vertically integrated NewSpace company ‘democratising access to space’, providing turnkey solutions from cutting edge earth observation data, advanced pico-satellite platforms, and ground station services. The upcoming launch in January with SpaceX would see the initial deployment of three Unicorn 2-Satellites to create the world’s highest resolution imagery of the earth at night. This constellation will be supplemented with additional launches in 2022 and 2023.

Alba Orbital has over 30 customers across three continents, including prestigious clients such as Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University and TU Delft. For more information visit www.albaorbital.com or get in touch at contact@albaorbital.com.

About McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS) 

Founded in 2017 and developed by MIS as part of the Future at Lloyd’s programme, GEO uses powerful artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and government intelligence techniques. It can rapidly analyse data from satellites, drones, global and local sensor networks and third-party information providers in real time. The GEO demonstration project, co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), through its Space Solutions Business Applications Programme, promotes the development of space-based applications and services. The partnership between MIS and Alba Orbital reflects the importance of including new, cutting edge data sources when managing the global risk landscape.