RapidEye

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This article or section documents a scheduled or expected spaceflight.
Details may change as the launch date approaches or more information becomes available.

RapidEye is a commercial multispectral remote sensing satellite mission being designed and implemented by MDA for RapidEye AG. The RapidEye sensor images five optical bands in the 400-850nm range and provides 6.5m pixel size at nadir. Rapid delivery and short revisit times are provided through the use of a five-satellite constellation.

It provides products for the following applications:

Agriculture - crop monitoring and mapping, yield prediction, etc.
Forestry - tree species separation, stem volume estimation, etc.
Security & Emergency - desaster management etc.
Energy & Infrastructure - pipeline monitoring, landcover classification etc.
Environment - change detection etc.
Cartography - satellite based maps, ortho photos, etc.
Other Markets - natural disaster assessment, 3D-visualization, etc.

The satellites will be placed equally spaced in a single sun-synchronous orbit to ensure consistent imaging conditions and a short revisit time. The RapidEye system can access any area on Earth within a day and cover the entire agricultural areas of North America and Europe within five days.

The RapidEye satellite platforms are under construction by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). ^[1] This makes RapidEye the second multiple-satellite imaging constellation that SSTL has been involved with, after building and launching the Disaster Monitoring Constellation.

[edit] Launch

The five RapidEye earth observation satellites are planned to be launched on a single Russian Dnepr rocket from the Dombarovskiy Cosmodrome near Yasny in Russia in the second quarter of 2008.^[2] They will be deployed in orbits at an altitude of 630 km.^[3]

Launch is currently scheduled for mid 2008.