HISDESAT is the owner and operator of the PAZ satellite, which offers precise information for multiple applications from its polar orbit around the Earth.

From the start, the manufacture of the Paz satellite has given Spain’s aerospace industry a significant return on the investments made by the companies involved, allowing them to develop new capabilities that will improve their competitiveness in the global aerospace marketplace. This satellite improves Spain’s standing within the European Program, Copernicus, a key initiative in ground monitoring led by the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA).

PAZ is intended to not only address security and defense needs, but also other needs of a civilian nature. It is able to take over 25 cm resolution daytime and nighttime images a day in any weather conditions.

Designed for a five-and-half year mission, it covers an area of over 300,000 square kilometers a day. It will orbit the Earth fifteen times a day at an altitude of 514 kilometers and a speed of seven kilometers per second. Thanks to its slightly inclined quasi-polar orbit, PAZ embraces the entire Earth with an average revisit time of 24 hours.

Its total estimated weight is 1400 kg. It is 5-m high and its diameter is 2.4 m.

The radar is designed to be very flexible and is able to operate in a wide array of configurations depending on the desired image performance. It has a 256-GB image storage capacity and an X-band transmission speed of 300 Mbits/sec for relaying its images to the ground.

Spain’s National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) is the developer and owner of the Ground Control segment.