Earth Eye Sold Iran a Satellite That Photographed US Bases

Leaked Iranian military files show the IRGC tasked TEE-01B, a Chinese commercial satellite, to photograph US bases in March 2026. The frames of Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia are dated March 13, 14 and 15, the same window President Donald Trump said American aircraft there had been hit.

Control of the spacecraft was sold by Earth Eye Co under an in-orbit delivery deal priced at 250 million yuan ($36.6 million), according to those documents. Beijing called the account untrue. In May, the State Department named the vendor anyway.

Prince Sultan Was Photographed the Days the Tankers Were Hit

The leaked cache is a targeting folder, not a press kit. It holds time-stamped coordinate lists, orbital analysis and imagery that Iranian commanders assigned to TEE-01B before and after drone and missile strikes in March 2026.

On March 14, Trump confirmed that US planes at Prince Sultan Air Base had been hit. Five US Air Force refueling aircraft were damaged. The satellite’s log for that base covers the day before, the day of the strike, and the day after.

The same files show tasking over Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, ground near the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain, and Erbil airport in Iraq, around the time the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed attacks there. Other US-linked sites in the logs include Camp Buehring and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, and Duqm International Airport in Oman. Civilian plants appear too: the Khor Fakkan container port and the Qidfa power and desalination complex in the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain’s Alba aluminium smelter.

FROM LAUNCH TO THE MARCH WINDOW

1. June 6, 2024: Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1 lifts TEE-01B from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center into a 545 km sun-synchronous orbit.
2. September 2024: The IRGC Aerospace Force agrees to pay 250 million yuan ($36.6 million) for control of the satellite system, the leaked contract says.
3. Late 2024: The Guards take operational control after the in-orbit handover.
4. March 13, 14 and 15, 2026: TEE-01B images Prince Sultan Air Base. Trump confirms the hit on March 14.
5. May 8, 2026: The State Department designates The Earth Eye for providing satellite imagery to Iran during Operation Epic Fury.

Nicole Grajewski, an Iran specialist at Sciences Po, said the bird was being run by the IRGC Aerospace Force, not Iran’s civilian space programme, and that Tehran needed the foreign feed to pick targets ahead of time and check what the strikes had done.

What In-Orbit Delivery Gave the IRGC

At 13:00 Beijing time on June 6, 2024, Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1 rocket left Jiuquan on a flight coded Love On Top and placed TEE-01B, also called Eye of the Earth 1, into that 545 km sun-synchronous orbit. The launch firm said the spacecraft would take 0.52-meter images from 545 km across a swath wider than 14.8 km, for land monitoring, mineral work, smart cities and emergency use.

Earth Eye, registered in Beijing as Mumei Xingkong Keji, markets itself as an exporter of China’s commercial space industry. It was set up in 2021 and aims at Belt and Road clients. Iran joined that initiative the same year. On its product pages, TEE-01B is sold for agriculture, ocean monitoring and emergency management, plus natural-resource work and city transport. The company also lists island surveillance, disaster spotting and infrastructure inspection.

IN-ORBIT DELIVERY

• The model: A satellite is launched from China, then control is handed to an overseas customer after it is already circling the Earth.
• The crate that never moves: The buyer does not collect a spacecraft at a port, which keeps the transfer off ordinary export paperwork.
• The extra kit: The leaked September 2024 package covers the satellite, software, a ground network and ongoing technical support, not a one-off photo dump.

That is the hidden stakeholder. The IRGC Aerospace Force, which runs Iran’s missiles, drones and military space effort, did not have to wait on a homegrown launcher. It bought a finished eye that was already on orbit and paid in yuan.

Emposat’s Antennas Keep the Link Off Iranian Soil

The leaked agreement names Emposat, a Beijing ground-segment firm, as the company that would supply the software and station network for the satellite’s life. Those dishes send commands, pull telemetry and imagery, and let operators task the spacecraft from outside Iran. Earth Eye, on its own site, says it can reach 18 commercial ground-station partners worldwide. The leaked contract points at Emposat as the named provider for this bird.

Jim Lamson, a former CIA analyst now at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, called that layout a way to spread Iran’s space assets so they are harder to kill.

Iran’s satellite ground stations, which were hit in 2025 and 2026, can be hit very easily by missiles from a thousand miles away. You can’t just hit a Chinese ground station located in another country.

Jim Lamson, former CIA analyst, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

Emposat’s founder, Richard Zhao, spent 15 years at the state-run China Academy of Space Technology. A US House China committee report has tied the firm to the PLA Aerospace Force, including people linked to satellite launch command centres. Aidan Powers-Riggs, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has said Emposat was founded by veterans of China’s state space programme and backed by military-civil fusion funds.

That is not a court finding. It is why a commercial antenna network is not a civilian footnote. If the Guards can talk to TEE-01B through stations in Asia and Latin America, a strike on an Iranian dish does not end the pass.

0.52-Meter Pictures and Iran’s Noor Satellites

Half a meter on the ground is enough to pick out aircraft, vehicles and fresh scars on a ramp. Iran’s own military imagers were not in that class. The IRGC’s Noor-3, its best bird before this purchase, was estimated at about 5 meters, roughly ten times coarser than TEE-01B’s 0.52-meter panchromatic pictures and too soft to identify parked aircraft.

US bases in the Gulf already show up in open commercial feeds. Fitness maps still sketch CENTCOM routines even after tighter rules. A dedicated 0.52-meter satellite tasked by the Guards is the same exposure with a military clock attached.

SITES IN THE LEAKED TASKING LOGS

The civilian names in the same folder, Khor Fakkan, Qidfa and Alba, sit on fuel, water and metal, the kind of Gulf plant China buys from and the IRGC can threaten. That mix is why Gulf capitals read a Chinese commercial satellite over their runways as more than an Iranian story.

Beijing Denied the Leak, Then Washington Sanctioned the Firms

China’s foreign ministry told reporters the account was untrue. “Recently, some forces have been keen on fabricating rumors and maliciously associating them to China,” the ministry said. “China firmly opposes this kind of practice driven by ulterior motives.” The Chinese embassy in Washington called the claims speculative disinformation. The White House, CIA and Pentagon did not address the Emposat link. A White House spokesperson pointed instead to Trump’s warning that China would face “big problems” if it supplied Iran with air defences.

In April, Earth Eye and Emposat did not answer questions. Days later Emposat put out a statement on its site and WeChat, saying it had never granted any third-party access to its stations and had never worked with the IRGC or other military bodies named in the reports.

Our global network of ground stations is entirely under our own control and operated independently. We have never granted any third-party access, usage rights, or control over our ground station network.

Emposat statement, April 2026

On May 8, 2026, the State Department announced sanctions on The Earth Eye and two other Chinese imagery firms, plus an Iranian export office, for satellite pictures it said enabled Iranian strikes on US forces during Operation Epic Fury. “The supply of satellite imagery of U.S. facilities in the Middle East to Iran threatens American and partner personnel,” the department said.

WHO WASHINGTON NAMED ON MAY 8

• The Earth Eye (TEE): A China-based firm the State Department said provided satellite imagery to Iran during Operation Epic Fury.
• Meentropy Technology (MizarVision): A Hangzhou geospatial firm accused of publishing open-source images of US military activity in that campaign.
• Chang Guang Satellite Technology: Accused of collecting pictures of US and allied facilities for Iranian requests; previously designated on December 12, 2023.

The designations landed after the March photographs were already in the file. They treat the commercial sellers as the problem, which is the point the leak made in another language: the Guards did not have to steal a PLA spacecraft. They could buy one.

A Command Link That Missiles Cannot Reach

Sun-synchronous orbit is a working orbit, not a slogan. It brings the same ground under similar light on repeating passes, which is what you want if you are comparing a ramp before a strike and after it. A 0.52-meter camera turns that repeat into a before-and-after of individual airframes. Iran’s Noor line could not do that job.

The louder operational fact is not the camera. It is the path the bits travel. If commands and pictures move through commercial stations that are not in Iran, the IRGC can keep tasking after its own antennas are cratered. That is what Lamson was describing, and it is what Emposat denies ever having allowed.

Those two sentences still sit on the table. The leaked September 2024 contract says Emposat would run the network for the IRGC. Emposat says it never gave a third party the keys. The State Department, naming The Earth Eye in May, did not bother to wait for that argument to finish.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the TEE-01B Satellite?

TEE-01B is a small optical craft, listed at under 112 kg, that Earth Eye flew as the first bird in a planned TEE constellation. Its design sheet gives push-broom, stereo and along-track imaging in panchromatic plus blue, green, red and near-infrared bands. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a space radio licence after launch so the company could sell the data.

What Does In-Orbit Delivery Mean?

In-orbit delivery is a sales method where the manufacturer launches the satellite in China and only then hands control to the foreign buyer. Earth Eye also advertises whole-satellite exports, launch services, training, consulting and components to Belt and Road clients, which keeps the hardware inside China’s launch system until it is already on orbit.

Which Firms Did the US Sanction Over Iran Imagery?

The May 8, 2026, package hit four entities: The Earth Eye, Meentropy Technology (MizarVision), Chang Guang Satellite Technology, and Iran’s Ministry of Defence Export Center (MINDEX), the export arm of the already designated Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics. Chang Guang had been designated earlier, on December 12, 2023, under a separate order, including over imagery for the Houthis.

How Does TEE-01B Compare With Iran’s Noor Satellites?

Noor-2 was estimated at 12 to 15 meters, Noor-3 at about 5 meters, and TEE-01B at 0.52 meters panchromatic. That step is what lets an analyst call out a tanker on a Saudi ramp instead of a blur on a pad. Western commercial imagers sell pictures in the same half-meter class, which is why a Chinese export sale, not a new Iranian invention, closed the gap.