RADARSAT-2
Overview
Earth observation satellite
Earth observation satellites are satellites specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit, similar to reconnaissance satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc....
that was successfully launched December 14, 2007 for the Canadian Space Agency by Starsem
Starsem
Starsem is a European-Russian company that was created in 1996 to commercialise the Soyuz launcher. Starsem is headquartered in Évry, France and has the following shareholders:* Russian Federal Space Agency...
, using a Soyuz FG launch vehicle, from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 meters above sea level...
.
Radarsat-2 was previously assembled, integrated and tested at the David Florida Laboratory
David Florida Laboratory
The David Florida Laboratory is the Canadian Space Agency's spacecraft assembly, integration and testing centre, in Shirleys Bay, just west of Ottawa...
near Ottawa, Ontario before the start of its launch campaign.
The end of the spacecraft and ground segment commissioning period was declared on April 27, 2008 after which routine commercial operation started.
The Satellite has a Synthetic Aperture Radar
Synthetic aperture radar
Synthetic-aperture radar is a form of radar whose defining characteristic is its use of relative motion between an antenna and its target region to provide distinctive long-term coherent-signal variations that are exploited to obtain finer spatial resolution than is possible with conventional...
(SAR) with multiple polarization modes, including a fully polarimetric mode in which HH, HV, VV and VH polarized data are acquired.
Unanswered Questions
