SPOT 6 and SPOT 7
SPOT 6 was launched on September 9, 2012 while SPOT 7 proposed launch is in the year of 2013. They form a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites designed to provide continuity of high-resolution, wide-swath data up to 2023. EADS Astrium took the decision to build this constellation in 2009 on the basis of a perceived government need for this kind of data. Spot Image, a subsidiary of Astrium, is funding the satellites alone and owns the system (satellites and ground segments).
- The architecture is similar to that of the Pleiades satellites, with a centrally mounted optical instrument, a three-axis star tracker, a fibre-optic gyro (FOG) and four control moment gyros (CMGs).
- SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 will be phased in the same orbit as Pléiades 1 and Pléiades 2 at an altitude of 694 km.
- Image product resolution:
- Panchromatic: 1.5 m
- Colour merge: 1.5 m
- Multispectral: 8 m
- Spectral bands, with simultaneous panchromatic and multispectral acquisitions:
- Panchromatic (450 – 745 nm)
- Blue (450 – 525 nm)
- Green (530 – 590 nm)
- Red (625 – 695 nm)
- Near-infrared (760 – 890 nm)
- Footprint: 60 km x 60 km
- Responsive satellite tasking, with 6 tasking plans per day, per satellite
- Capacity to acquire up to 3 million km2. daily
Spot-6 was Successfully launched by India's PSLV-C21 mission on 9th Sept. 2012 at 9:53 am (lift-off).
Read more about this topic: SPOT (satellite)
Famous quotes containing the word spot:
“But money, wife, is the true Fuller’s Earth for reputations, there is not a spot or a stain but what it can take out.”
—John Gay (1685–1732)