The primary payload of this cluster launch, with piggybacks from the British SSTL and Turkish TUBITAK UZAY, will be Sych-2 of Ukraine.
The Sych-2 satellite is being developed as a part of the space optical-range Earth observation system by the State Design Office of Yuzhnoye and built by the Industrial Association ‘Yuzhny Machine Building Plant’ in cooperation with other space industry entities upon the state order of the National Space Agency of Ukraine.
It is planned to inject Sych-2 to the sun-synchronous orbit with 668 km altitude. According to the information obtained from the National Space Agency of Ukraine, the spacecraft payload will consist of a high-resolution multi-spectral imager (hereinafter– MSU) and an infrared mid-band imager (hereinafter - SSIK). MSU will enable observation within four spectral bands (Green – 0.51…0.59 µm, Red – 061…0.68 µm, NIR – 0.8…0.89 µm and Panchromatic – 0.51…0.9 µm) with swath width of 46.6 km and 7.8-metre resolution. SSIK will provide 55.3 km swath width within the infrared band with 39.5 m resolution. The ground swath coverage for both imagers is 500 km.
The Earth remote sensing data received from Sych-2 satellite can be utilized in the interests of various socio-economic and environmental tasks.
The other co-passengers to this cluster launch, apart from Sych-2, will be: RASAT (Turkey), NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X (UK), EduSat of the University of Rome, and other payloads.
At present time, ISC Kosmotras is in a process of selecting payloads for similar launches to be performed in 2011 and 2012.
27.10.2009 |