Airbus expands EO constellation with Pléiades Neo Next
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Airbus expands EO constellation with Pléiades Neo Next

Airbus has launched the Pléiades Neo Next programme to expand its very high-resolution Earth observation constellation. This new programme will introduce new satellite assets and capabilities, including enhanced native resolution. As the first step for Pléiades Neo Next, Airbus is developing a new satellite which will be launched in the next few years.

“The Pléiades Neo Next programme builds on the success of our existing Pléiades Neo constellation which serves government and commercial customers around the world,” said Karen Florschütz, executive vice president Connected Intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space. “This new programme will further enhance our standard of excellence in terms of quality, performance and reliability to deliver images as well as geointelligence services and applications.”

The Pléiades Neo Next programme is funded, manufactured and operated by Airbus Defence and Space, with the full image capacity available for a wide range of sectors including defence and intelligence, agriculture, environment, maritime, disaster response, mapping, location-based services, civil engineering, urban planning and utilities.

Users will continue to be able to directly task the Airbus satellites up to a few dozen minutes prior to the satellite over the area of interest. Images will be received through the customer’s Direct Receiving Stations (DRS) on the ground, or on the OneAtlas digital platform, swiftly after collection, allowing mission-critical applications.

Capacity for imagery requests

Working in tandem, the Pléiades Neo and Pléiades Neo Next satellites will provide a higher revisit rate anywhere on Earth, with the ability to revisit several times per day, along with the highest spatial resolution and geolocation accuracy available in the market. In addition to improved native resolution, the development of Pléiades Neo Next will further enhance the ground segment, the DRS and the OneAtlas platform, increasing the capacity for imagery requests and optimizing the time between request, capture and reception.

With Pléiades Neo Next, Airbus is reinforcing its Earth observation capabilities and services to remain at the forefront of geospatial technologies. The Airbus fleet includes both optical and radar satellite constellations ensuring complementarity services and applications, including various resolutions, all-weather and day and night capabilities. In parallel, Airbus is developing new capabilities based on stratospheric platforms.

Pléiades Neo satellite image showing the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (Image courtesy: Airbus)
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