November 4th, 2011
Six Astrium Satellites to be Launched from Kourou

• Rating12345

Astrium, the European space industry leader, is prime contractor for all six satellites to be launched in mid-December by the 2^nd Soyuz launcher to lift off from Kourou. The six satellites:

• Pléiades 1 is the first of two very high-resolution satellites manufactured by Astrium Satellites in Toulouse for CNES (the French Space Agency). It will be joined in space by its twin, Pléiades 2, in approximately one year’s time.

Once in orbit, each satellite will provide the French and Spanish defence ministries, and civilian users, with Very High Resolution (VHR) optical satellite imagery coupled with major operational advances. They offer incomparable image acquisition capacity, remarkable agility (rapid area targeting) for multiple target modes (stereo, mosaics, corridor or target) and excellent operational flexibility.

At an altitude of 700km, the Pléiades constellation will be capable, after processing, to provide 50-cm resolution products with a swath width of 20km.

• The four satellites for the ELISA demonstrator are developed jointly by Astrium Satellites and Thales Systèmes Aéroportés for the French ministry of defence procurement agency (DGA) and CNES. ELISA will demonstrate spaceborne capabilities to map and characterize radar emissions from all around the globe. The four satellites are also based on the Myriade platform.
• SSOT (“Sistema Satelital para la Observación de la Tierra”) is the most recent space-based Earth observation system exported by Astrium Satellites, the world’s number one exporter in the field. Ordered by Chile in late 2008, SSOT is based on two product families: the Myriade platform developed in cooperation with the CNES, and Naomi optical instruments, made of silicon carbide and used with success by Astrium for many other optical imagery missions.

The launching of six satellites in a single flight has been made possible thanks to the payload support structure developed at the Astrium site in Barajas, near Madrid.

The launch sequence for this second Soyuz flight from Kourou calls for the Pléiades 1 to be placed in orbit first, followed by the four ELISA satellites and finally SSOT.

This will be the first time that six satellites developed by Astrium are launched simultaneously.

About Astrium

Astrium is the number one company in Europe and the third in the world for space technologies. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services.

In 2010, Astrium had a turnover of €5 billion and more than 15,000 employees worldwide, mainly in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure, Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment, and Astrium Services for comprehensive end-to-end solutions covering secure and commercial satcoms and networks, high security satellite communications equipment, bespoke geo-information and navigation services worldwide.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2010, the Group – comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of € 45.8 billion and employed a workforce of nearly 122,000.