Capital and Business Alliance between JR East Startup and New Space Intelligence

JR East Startup Co., Ltd. (President and CEO: Yutaka Shibata, hereinafter 'JR East Startup'), a CVC subsidiary of JR East that promotes investment in and collaboration with venture companies, and New Space Intelligence Co., Ltd. (Representative Director and CEO: Yumiko Nagai, hereinafter 'NSI'), which develops a satellite data utilization platform based on calibration technology, have agreed to a capital and business alliance aimed at realizing new maintenance technologies utilizing satellite data in the railway infrastructure owned by the JR East Group.

◆ About Collaboration with the JR East Group
The JR East Group and NSI have been collaborating on the utilization of satellite data in the maintenance area of railway infrastructure since the JR East Startup Program (*1) in the fall of 2024. JR East has a vast business area of approximately 7,400km, and maintaining and managing its tracks and surrounding environments is an extremely important theme for ensuring railway safety. Until now, various methods and technologies have been used, such as on-site visual checks by personnel, monitoring by ground equipment, and aerial monitoring by drones, but now, in addition to these, we are taking on the challenge of monitoring from space using satellite data.

Furthermore, NSI's proprietary calibration technology, which can convert multiple satellite data as if they were taken by the same satellite, brings 'increased observation frequency', 'cost reduction', and 'service availability' to satellite data utilization businesses. Another major feature is that the service can be used continuously without being affected by sudden operational stoppages of specific satellites. This is highly compatible with businesses that support society, such as the railway business, and we are advancing collaboration to further improve the safety of the railway business by utilizing satellite data.

*1 JR East Startup Program: A program that solicits business and service proposals from venture companies and people with various ideas that utilize the management resources and information assets of stations, railways, and group businesses, and realizes them after refining them.

◆ About Integrated Use of Multiple Satellites and Calibration Technology
By integrating and using multiple satellites as a single satellite, it becomes possible to increase the frequency of observation and cover failures with other satellites. In addition, it is expected that the cost of utilizing satellite data can be reduced by appropriately utilizing free satellite data.

(Image of integrated use of multiple satellites)

What makes this possible is the calibration technology developed by NSI using mirror reflectors installed on the ground. A reference point for calibrating each satellite data is created with a mirror reflector, and scattered satellite data is converted as if it were taken by the same satellite.