{"id":14446,"date":"2017-08-01T17:15:20","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T09:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/two-israeli-built-satellites-set-for-launch-tuesday\/"},"modified":"2017-08-01T17:15:20","modified_gmt":"2017-08-01T09:15:20","slug":"two-israeli-built-satellites-set-for-launch-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/two-israeli-built-satellites-set-for-launch-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Israeli-built satellites set for launch Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Optsat 3000 satellite, seen at top, awaits encapsulation inside the Vega rocket\u2019s payload fairing last month. The Ven\u00b5s spacecraft is closed up inside the black dual-payload structure below Optsat 3000. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A European Vega rocket is scheduled to launch Tuesday from a tropical spaceport in South America carrying two Israeli-built satellites for the Italian military and a French-Israeli environmental observatory.<\/p>\n

The tandem mission will deploy the Optsat 3000 and Ven\u00b5s Earth observation satellites into two different polar orbits following liftoff from Kourou, French Guiana, at 0158:33 GMT Wednesday (9:58:33 p.m. EDT; 10:58:33 p.m. Kourou time Tuesday).<\/p>\n

The satellites were built by Israel Aerospace Industries under agreements with Israeli, Italian and French governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a business point-of-view, these are two super high-end satellties, each one with their own capabilities,\u201d said Opher Doron, general manager of IAI\u2019s space division. \u201cBoth are going to top-notch customers who know what they\u2019re talking about, and it\u2019s a great honor to provide these satellites, and to get them ready for operation for the Italian Ministry of Defense, and ISA (Israel Space Agency) and CNES (the French space agency).\u201d<\/p>\n

Optsat 3000, the heavier of the mission\u2019s two payloads, will separate from the launcher first around 43 minutes after liftoff. The Ven\u00b5s spacecraft will deploy from the Vega rocket\u2019s upper stage around T+plus 1 hour, 37 minutes.<\/p>\n

Once the booster\u2019s three Italian-made solid rocket motors propel the Vega rocket to the north from French Guiana, a Ukrainian-made fourth stage engine will ignite five times on Tuesday night\u2019s flight, first to send the Optsat 3000 satellite to an orbit around 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth, then to raise its altitude to 447 miles (720 kilometers) for separation of Ven\u00b5s.<\/p>\n

The final upper stage maneuver will de-orbit the rocket to avoid it becoming space junk.<\/p>\n

Optsat 3000 is Italy\u2019s first optical surveillance satellite, joining a fleet of Italian radar imaging craft already in orbit. The $182 million satellite, designed for a lifetime of at least six years, carries a Jupiter remote sensing camera provided by Israel-based Elbit Systems Ltd. capable of resolving objects on the ground smaller than a half-meter (20 inches).<\/p>\n

The Italian Ministry of Defense ordered the Optsat 3000 satellite from Israel Aerospace Industries as part of a reciprocal contract arrangement, in exchange for the Israeli military\u2019s purchase of Italian-made jet trainers.<\/p>\n

Telespazio acts as prime contractor for the Optsat 3000 program, and OHB Italy reserved the satellite\u2019s launch on a Vega rocket with Arianespace.<\/p>\n

\u201cOptsat is our very high-end electro-optical satellite,\u201d Doron said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be flying at 450 kilometers. It\u2019s got superb resolution at that altitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Optsat 3000\u2019s imaging strength, enabled in part by its relatively low-altitude orbit, apparently bests the resolution offered by spy satellites owned by other European governments, and matches the world\u2019s best commercial Earth observation spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s probably one of the more advanced satellites around,\u201d Doron said.<\/p>\n

Without disclosing the exact resolution of Optsat 3000\u2019s images, Doron said it will offer \u201cWorldView-class\u201d image sharpness from its operating orbit. DigitalGlobe\u2019s newest WorldView satellites have cameras capable to resolving features as small as 31 centimeters, or 12 inches, on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe generic Optsats offer 50 centimeters (resolution) from 600 kilometers, although this one will be better because it\u2019s lower, so it\u2019s super-high resolution,\u201d Doron said. \u201cThis satellite is also optimized to cover very large areas. It\u2019s very agile, so it can cover lots of targets in many areas using different scanning modes and different scanning directions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doron described Optsat 3000 as a \u201ctool designed for practical intelligence users.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ven\u00b5s spacecraft is setting off on a dual scientific and technology demonstration mission.<\/p>\n

Fitted with a French-supplied \u201csuper-spectral\u201d color camera sensitive in 12 bands ranging from blue to near-infrared, Ven\u00b5s will take pictures of vegetation, glaciers, coastlines and other features from a perch 447 miles (720 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A photo of the Ven\u00b5s satellite during ground testing. Credit: CNES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat is really unique in Ven\u00b5s is the convergence of three things,\u201d said Pierric Ferrier, the Ven\u00b5s project manager at CNES. \u201cThe good resolution of 5 meters (16 feet), the spectral richness of the camera in 12 bands, and the third is revisit \u2014 two days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Existing Earth observation satellites observe pre-defined zones of interest every 10 to 15 days,\u201d Ferrier told Spaceflight Now in a phone interview. \u201cAt this frequency, you cannot observe quickly for phenomena such as plant growth, variation of snow cover, and various types of phenomena which need constant, frequent observation. So Ven\u00b5s will be able to distinguish between two images taken at two-day intervals, and see what has evolved quickly between the two images.\u201d<\/p>\n

A software algorithm developed for the Ven\u00b5s mission will help scientists remove clouds and aerosols from the satellite\u2019s imagery, revealing minute changes on the surface.<\/p>\n

Scientists will point Ven\u00b5s\u2019s camera toward 110 areas of interest in forests, croplands and nature reserves around the world, according to CNES. No other satellite currently in orbit can survey the same locations with the resolution and frequency of the Ven\u00b5s mission, a benefit gained at the expense of global coverage, officials said.<\/p>\n

The United States has 24 percent of the Ven\u00b5s mission\u2019s targets, more than any other nation.<\/p>\n

Researchers will track plant growth, snow cover, glacial movements, and sediments in coastal estuaries with the Ven\u00b5s satellite. Scientists will analyze the mission\u2019s data output to study how environmental and human factors influence vegetation health.<\/p>\n

\u201cVen\u00b5s will be used to model the influence of human activities or environmental factors, global warming, on the surface reflectances,\u201d Ferrier said. \u201cThe idea is to be able to build models to study the evolution and prevent the effect of global warming and allow sustainable development.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hydric stress of vegetation can be observed in some of the spectral bands of Ven\u00b5s, then you will be able to monitor exactly the need of water for your plants, and in the infrared domain also you can monitor the presence of water in the soil or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEach type of plant has its own spectral signature. We are able to segregate and isolate some of the crops we want to observe, and we can combine some spectral bands and get the spectral signature of each crop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ven\u00b5s project is a partnership between CNES and the Israel Space Agency. Besides the satellite\u2019s primary camera, France is in charge of the mission\u2019s science data center and other ground systems. Israeli engineers built the satellite, the camera\u2019s telescope and a experimental plasma thruster to be tested in the second phase of the Ven\u00b5s mission.<\/p>\n

IAI built a nanosatellite that launched in February that is making experimental weather observations, but Doron said Ven\u00b5s is \u201cthe first serious research satellite Israel has done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials from the Israel Space Agency and CNES said each nation contributed approximately $40 million to the Ven\u00b5s mission. Adjusting for the price of the launch, the mission\u2019s total cost exceeds $100 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very nicely run program between the two space agences, and we hope for many more,\u201d Doron said.<\/p>\n

After a two-and-a-half-year Earth observation campaign, Ven\u00b5s\u2019s altitude will be lowered to approximately 250 miles (410 kilometers) to test the low-power electric thruster\u2019s ability to counteract the effect of atmospheric drag and maintain the satellite\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

Developed by Rafael, an Israeli defense contractor, the Hall effect thruster design could be used on future Israeli-built reconnaissance satellites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting new capability that we plan to migrate on to other satellites to give us longer life and lower altitudes,\u201d Doron said. \u201cThis is designed to give us a flight-proven capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Optsat 3000 satellite, seen at top, awaits encapsulation inside the Vega rocket\u2019s payload fairing last month. The Ven\u00b5s spacecraft is closed up inside the black dual-payload structure below Optsat 3000. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin A European Vega rocket is scheduled to launch Tuesday from a tropical spaceport […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[498,1244,690,159,2185,1775,242,1773],"class_list":["post-14446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-arianespace","tag-avio","tag-cnes","tag-earth-observation","tag-elbit","tag-electric-propulsion","tag-france","tag-guiana-space-center"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}