TerraSAR X

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General

Designation	31698 / 07026A
Launch date	15 Jun 2007
Country of origin	Germany
Mission	Remote sensing
Perigee/Apogee	514 km
Inclination
Period
Launch vehicle	Dnepr #9

Should cost EUR 130 million (including launch). DLR provides EUR 102 million while Astrium brings in EUR 28 million.

DLR is be responsible for scientific use while exclusive commercial marketing of the data will be carried out by Infoterra GmbH (Friedrichshafen, Germany), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Astrium.

The construction of a partner satellite called TanDEM-X is planned, which would operate alongside TerraSAR-X as of 2009. The pair would create a digital elevation model of the entire planet with an unprecedented degree of resolution.

After 2 years, the satellite took approximately 35,000 radar images of the Earth's surface.

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External resources

http://www.terrasar.de/

http://www.infoterra-global.com/
sat-index articles

Technical data

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Specifications

Prime contractor	Astrium
Platform	AstroBus (mixes LeoStar and FlexBus)
Mass at launch	1346 kg
Mass in orbit
Dimension
Solar array
Stabilization
DC power
Design lifetime	5 years

Will provide upto 1-m resolution images with its X-band SAR. The beam can be angled within a slewing range of 20 to 60 degrees by selectively superimposing multiple individual radar beams.
3 different levels of resolution (16 m, 3 m and 1 m) and image size can be chosen.

Secondary payloads:
LCT: Laser Communication Terminal: an optical data communication experiment, built by TESAT, to downlink data to an earth station at high throughput. Working perfectly after 2 years.

TOR: Tracking, Occultation and Ranging experiment: 2 GPS receivers to perform fine (10 cm) orbit corrections.

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