Pleiades-1 Sub-metre Imagery Satellite Launched

On 17th December 2011, the new, very high-resolution French satellite Pleiades-1 was successfully launched from Kourou launch site (French Guiana). This 1-ton spacecraft was put into the morning sun-synchronous orbit at 694km altitude and, after orbital testing, will start delivering colour images of the Earth's surface at a spatial resolution of up to 50cm. This marks a new entrant into the 0.5m market.  

Currently, the sole suppliers of 0.5m-resolution images on the world market have been the American GeoEye and DigitalGlobe companies. The appearance of a new supplier will promote faster development of the world geodata market.

The principal differentiating characteristics of the Pleiades-1 satellite that was launched on 17th December, compared to its modern counterparts, include very high spatial resolution up to 50cm, high geolocation accuracy (up to 4.5m CE90 without GCPs), a wide swath of 20km, automatic generation of ortho-rectified 2nd processing level products within 30 minutes, possibility of multiple programming during a day, five imaging modes, including mapping of 100km x 100km areas and many other features. A system of two satellites (Pleiades-2 launch is scheduled for 2012) will enable imaging of any area of the Earth within one day and will ensure high efficiency: up to 1 million sq km.

Representatives of the French Space Agency CNES, of the French Defence Procurement Agency DGA, of Astrium company and others were present to witness the launch. Vice-President of ScanEx RDC, Olga Gershenzon, and head of Content-Services Department of Yandex, Andrei Strelkov, were invited to take part in this launch as well. Russian Center ScanEx is the strategic partner of the European Astrium Geo-Information Services, ensuring the reception of images from SPOT series satellites to the proprietary ground stations installed throughout Russia since 2006.

The European EADS-Astrium consortium has been developing the Pleiades satellites since late 2003 together with Thales Alenia Space company (the optical system developer), covered by a 314 euro million contract. Part of the onboard resources of dual-purpose Pleiades satellites will be used by the French Department of Defence that has provided part of the investment into the Pleiades dual-purpose programme.

The "Soyuz-ST" launch vehicle put four more micro-satellites of electronic intelligence Elisa and the first Chilean military intelligence SSOT satellite into orbit along with Pleiades-1 during this multiple payload launch. All spacecrafts were developed and produced at the EADS-Astrium consortium facilities.

In the next two to three years, Astrium company plans to launch three new satellites (Pleiades-2 and SPOT 6/7) that will form a unified system in orbit, ensuring the possibility to take images of any area twice a day at spatial resolutions from 0.5 to 1.5m.