Russia launches RapidEye remote sensing satellites

Russia launches RapidEye remote sensing satellites (NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - August 29, 2008: Russia has launched a constellation of five remote Earth sensing satellites from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the federal space agency said Friday. The satellites were launched by a converted Dnepr rocket under a contract with Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), to be operated by Germany's RapidEye AG. The small-satellite mission will enable global monitoring of the Earth's surface, according to the company. RapidEye says the constellation is designed to provide insurance and food companies, farmers, governments, and other agencies and institutions throughout the world with up-to-date, customized information products and services. The constellation will image any area in the world at all latitudes between plus or minus 75 degrees within one day and take an average of five days to produce a complete data set for the agricultural land of North America and Europe. The Ukrainian-Russian-Kazakh consortium Kosmotras converts RS-20 (Satan) missiles into Dnepr launch rockets.