SPOT-1,2,3

SPOT (Satellite Probatoire d'Observation de la Terre) is the French government sponsored civil Earth observation program, with support from Belgium and Sweden. A single SPOT satellite provides complete coverage of the Earth every 26 days. Image products from SPOT are handled by a commercial entity, SPOT-Image Corp.

Spacecraft
3-Axis stabilized to 0.1 deg using momentum wheels. Single solar arrays generates 1000 W (BOL) power. Downlink at 8 GHz and 2 x 25 Mbps. Hydrazine propulsion system provides orbit maintenance.

Payload
The HRV (High Resolution Visible) imaging payload provides 20 meter resolution multispectral imagery and 10 meter panchromatic imagery using pushbroom sensors. HRV covers the following spectral bands: 0.5 - 0.59 µ m, 0.61 - 0.68 µ m, 0.79 - 0.89 µm; in addition to the panchromatic band: 0.51 - 0.73 µ m. The field of view is 4.13 deg in both modes (multispectral and panchromatic) with 3000 pixels per multispectral line and 6000 pixels per panchromatic line. The observed strip is 60 km wide (swath width). On-board recorder capacity is 22 minutes for both modes. The HRV mass is 250 kg. The spacecraft carries two identical HRVs to provide a total of 117 km swath (with 3 km overlap).

Country of Origin	France
Customer/User	CNES, ESA, SPOT-Image Corp.
Manufacturer(s)	Matra Marconi, Aerospatiale, Sodern
Size	2 m x 2 m x 3.5 m main bus, 15.6 m solar array span
Orbit	832 km, sun-synchronous, repeating every 26 days (14 5/26 revs per day), 98.7 deg inclination
Design Life	2 years

Launch Facts

Name	Int'l Desig.	Date	Site	Vehicle	Orbit	Mass(kg)
Notes
SPOT 1	1986-019A	2/22/86	Kourou	Ariane 1	LEO	1830
SPOT 2	1990-005A	1/22/90	Kourou	Ariane 40	LEO	1870
Remote sensing
SPOT 3	1993-061A	9/26/93	Kourou	Ariane 40	LEO	1907
Remote sensing