Satellite and Mission
| Launch date | June 15, 2007 |
| Carrier rocket | Dnepr rocket |
| Launch site | Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan |
| Satellite mass | 1,230 kg (2,700 lb) |
| Satellite size | 5 m height by 2.4 m diameter (16 ft × 7.9 ft) |
| Type | Low Earth Orbit |
| Altitude | 514 km (319 mi) |
| Inclination | 97.44° |
| Radar Frequency | 9.65 GHz |
| Repeat cycle | 94.92 minutes |
With its active phased array X-band SAR antenna (wavelength 31 mm, frequency 9.6 GHz), TerraSAR-X acquires new high-quality radar images of the entire planet whilst circling Earth in a polar orbit at 514 km altitude. The orbit is selected such that the satellite flies in a sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit, which means that it moves along the day-night boundary of the Earth and always presents the same face to the sun, ensuring an optimum energy supply via the solar cells. TerraSAR-X is designed to carry out its task for five years, independent of weather conditions and illumination, and reliably provides radar images with a resolution of up to 1m.
Features of TerraSAR-X:
- resolution of up to 1m,
- excellent radiometric accuracy,
- geometric accuracy unrivalled by any other commercial spaceborne sensor,
- quick site access time of 2.5 days max. (2 days at 95% probability) to any point on Earth,
- unique agility (rapid switches between imaging modes and polarisations)
Read more about this topic: Terra SAR-X
Famous quotes containing the words satellite and/or mission:
“Books are the best things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book, than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)