Zee Media Bureau

Bangalore: European aerospace major and world`s second largest space company, Airbus Defence and Space, is in the final stages of preparation for the launch of SPOT-7, its new high-resolution earth observation satellite, onboard an Indian rocket (PSLV-C23) June 30.

According to the space company, the French satellite has been integrated on polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C23) that will place it into a 655 km sun synchronous orbit.

Using PSLV-C23, the satellite will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh at 09.49 a.m. Monday.

SPOT-7 (a satellite for observation of earth) weighs about 715 kg, will be placed diametrically opposite its twin satellite SPOT-6, which was also launched by an Indian rocket September 9, 2012 from Sriharikota, about 80 km northeast of Chennai.

“It took us three and a half years to design and manufacture the twin satellites system, a global benchmark, through the use of our expertise to enhance quality, speed of delivery and reduce the level of risk involved in the projects,” Space Systems head Francois Auque said in the statement.

Like SPOT-6, SPOT-7 can also quickly be pointed anywhere within an area of 1,500km of its position, while enabling daily revisits to any point on the globe, providing a total coverage of six million square kilometres every day.

“SPOT-7 will deliver imaging products with a resolution of up to 1.5 metres, improving the service provided by the SPOT-5 satellite, which has been in operation since 2002,” added Auque.

The twin spacecrafts complete the company`s constellation, which combines the high resolution and the very high resolution satellites Pleiades IA and Pleiades IB in the same orbit.

“The constellation will offer our customers a chance to access new applications with lead times. As a result, every point of the globe will be visible every day both in high resolution and very high resolution,” Auque said.

SPOT-7 is equipped with a flash-type memory, as is SPOT-6, which was a world first for a commercial satellite at the time.

SPOT-7 offers 60 percent better performance and is two and a half times lighter, five times smaller and consumes three and half times less power when compared to the previous generation satellites.

Widely used in mass-market electronics, the new technology has proven that it meets the strict quality standards required for space missions and works in orbit.

The Euro 14-billion ($19 billion) aerospace division of Airbus group was formed by combining the business activities of Cassidian, Astrium and Airbus Military and employs about 40,000 people.

Along with SPOT-7, the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will also be launching four other commercial satellites as co-passengers on board the 230-tonne 44.4-metre rocket.

The four satellites are 14kg AISAT of Germany, NLS7.1 (Can-X4) and NLS7.2 (Can-X5) of Canada each weighing 15kg and the 7kg VELOX-1 of Singapore.

SPOT-7 has a lifespan of 10 years.

(With Agency Inputs)