Facts and figures

Launch
2024

Launcher
Vega from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana

Satellite and instrument size
Three-axis stabilised platform, 10 m high, 12 m wide and 20 m long (including large antenna)

Mass
1250 kg (including 132 kg (max) fuel)

Instrument
Fully polarimetric P-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument with a 12 m diameter passive reflector

Power
1.5 kW deployable solar array with 5.3 m2 triple junction cells; 156 Ah Li-ion battery

Orbit
Polar, dawn-dusk, Sun-synchronous, at altitude of 666 km inclined at 98 degrees, 3-day repeat cycle for interferometric acquisitions

Life
Minimum of 5.5 years

Communication
Science data transmitted to Kiruna (SE) via X-band downlink and via S-band uplink for tracking, telemetry and command

Mission control
ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt (DE)

Data processing
ESA’s Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN), in Frascati (IT)

Scientific objectives
Designed to deliver for the first time, global, repeat, systematic estimates of forest biomass. Biomass will reduce the uncertainty in the spatial distribution and dynamics of forest biomass to improve current assessments and future projections of the global carbon cycle

Project and commissioning
Managed at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands

Prime contractor
Airbus (UK)