iQPS Japan

iQPS (Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space) is a Fukuoka, Japan-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite startup founded in 2005 at Kyushu University, developing a constellation of small SAR Earth observation satellites designed to provide near-real-time all-weather radar imaging of the Earth's surface with update frequencies measured in minutes rather than days. iQPS's QPS-SAR satellite series uses a 3.6 m diameter deployable mesh reflector antenna in a compact 100 kg spacecraft to achieve 46 cm resolution — resolution competitive with much larger SAR satellites from Airbus (TerraSAR-X, 300 kg) and ICEYE (100 kg Ku-band) — by using an unusually large aperture for the satellite's mass class through innovative deployable antenna design derived from Kyushu University research.

The company launched QPS-SAR-1 (nicknamed Izanagi) in 2019 and QPS-SAR-2 (Izanami) in 2021, with subsequent satellites building out the constellation.

The Fukuoka headquarters reflects iQPS's origins as a Kyushu University faculty spinout — Japan's largest cluster of aerospace engineering outside Tokyo — with Professor Yoshiro Yamada as a founder bringing academic SAR technology into commercial application. iQPS's target constellation of 36 satellites would enable sub-10-minute revisit times for any point on Earth — supporting disaster response (earthquake, flood, landslide monitoring where cloud cover blocks optical imaging), maritime vessel tracking with SAR's ability to detect ships regardless of weather, and infrastructure change detection.

The company has raised significant venture funding from Japanese space-focused investors and is part of the growing Japanese commercial space ecosystem alongside Axelspace, Synspective, and QPS's direct competitors in the smallsat SAR space.