Pléiades (satellite)

The Pléiades constellation is composed of two very-high-resolution optical Earth-imaging satellites. Pléiades-1A and Pléiades-1B provide the coverage of Earth's surface with a repeat cycle of 26 days. Designed as a dual civil/military system, Pléiades will meet the space imagery requirements of European defence as well as civil and commercial needs. The Pléiades system was designed under the French-Italian ORFEO Programme (Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation) between 2001 and 2003. The Pléiades programme was launched in October 2003 with CNES (the French space agency) as the overall system prime contractor and EADS Astrium as the prime contractor for the space segment. is the official and exclusive worldwide distributor of Pléiades products and services under a delegated public service agreement. Pléiades-1A was launched via a Russian Soyuz ST-A launch vehicle of the Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, French Guiana, on 17 December 2011 at 02:03 UTC. Pléiades-1B was launched via a Russian Soyuz ST-A launch vehicle of the Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, French Guiana, on 2 December 2012 at 02:02 UTC. The two satellites operate in the same phased orbit and are offset at 180° to offer a daily revisit capability over any point on the globe. The Pléiades also share the same orbital plane as the SPOT 6 and 7, forming a larger constellation with 4 satellites, 90° apart from one another. Orbit: Sun-synchronous, phased, near-circular Mean altitude: 695 km Equipped with technologies like fibre-optic gyroscopes and control moment gyroscopes, Pléiades-HR 1A, and 1B offer roll, pitch, and yaw (slew) agility, enabling the system to maximize the number of acquisitions above a given area. This agility coupled with particularly dynamic image acquisition programming make the Pléiades system very responsive to specific user requirements. Individual user requests was answered in record time, thanks to multiple programming plans per day and a state-of-the-art image processing chain.