The SPOT 6 Earth observation satellite, built by Astrium, was successfully launched last week by a PSLV launcher from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in India.
It will join in orbit Pléiades 1A, the very high resolution Earth observation satellite, with products distributed by Astrium Services. Both satellites will first work together and will form, from 2014, a complete constellation with Pléiades 1B and SPOT 7, the next satellites on the launch track to complete Astrium Services full optical constellation.
As soon as they will be validated in orbit, each of SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 will be operated by Astrium Satellites and exploited by Astrium Services in coordination with the two Pléiades satellites along the same orbit. The constellation will offer unique applications to Astrium Services’ customers. Each point of the globe will be seen each day once in high resolution and in very high resolution. Moreover, while SPOT 6 & 7 will provide a wide picture over an area, Pléiades will be able to offer, for the same zone, products with a narrower field of view but with an increased level of detail (50cm).
“With four satellites phased 90 degrees apart in the same heliosynchronous quasi-polar orbit, we will be able to offer our customers geo-information products in record time, in as little as six hours,” said Eric Beranger, CEO Astrium Services. “With four satellites, we obviously have more freedom in terms of the revisit interval, for better change detection or faster coverage. Users can choose between very-high-resolution data capture at a specific point and high-resolution data capture over a larger area. We can also combine the two, of course. For instance, in case of flooding, SPOT 6 can provide the big picture and Pléiades will bring the focus over the most populated or damaged areas.”
SPOT 6 is an Earth observation satellite offering optical high-resolution capabilities. Like its twin, SPOT 7, which is slated for launch early 2014, SPOT 6 has a 60-km swath and will serve imagery products with a resolution down to 1.5 metres. SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 will ensure service continuity of SPOT 4 and SPOT 5 satellites, which have been operating since 1998 and 2002 respectively.
Moreover, both ground and space segments have been designed for improved performances compared to previous SPOT missions, especially in term of reactivity -from satellite tasking to product delivery and collection capacity. The constellation SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 will actually provide a daily revisit everywhere on Earth with a total coverage of 6 million sq km per day.
SPOT 6 and 7 will have a service life of 10 years.
The first images from SPOT 6 are available to view here.
For more information about how Pléiades and SPOT will operate together in orbit, there is a promotional video available at: http://videos-en.astrium.eads.net/#/video/bba506fb3d1s
