UK-made Earth observation satellites successfully launched from India

The two satellites were launched by the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research organisation on board a PSLV (polar satellite launch vehicle) rocket on 16^th September, 2018, and contact was made with both satellites in orbit the same day.

NovaSAR-1 is the first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) spacecraft to be built entirely in the UK and is the first of its type to occupy an orbit which crosses the equator at 1030 local time, which improves the diversity of radar operation times. Capable of seeing through clouds and imaging the Earth both night and day, SAR is an increasingly popular technology for commercial Earth observation. It is often used for tracking ocean-going vessels, and this will be an important application for NovaSAR-1, which has been designed with a specific maritime mode of operation monitoring a swath of the Earth’s surface 400km wide. Other operational modes include 20km-wide swath with 6m resolution, a 100km-wide swath with 20m resolution and a 150km-wide swath with 30m resolution.