Latest Disaster Monitoring Constellation Satellites are in Excellent Health

BILSAT-1, NigeriaSat-1 and UK-DMC, the most recent of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellites, are progressing extremely well after a highly successful launch on 27th September 2003 aboard a Russian Kosmos rocket.  The three new satellites have joined the first DMC satellite, A1SAT-1 which was launched in November 2002 to provide a worldwide daily imaging capability.

The latest satellites are in excellent health and have already returned their first test images.  Telemetry was received from each of the satellites within three hours of launch at each of their respective ground stations in Turkey, Nigeria and the UK. 

Using their highly specialised Earth imaging cameras, the UK-DMC satellite has already imaged the Arctic, England and France, and NigeriaSat-1 has taken its first images of Nigeria and Monrovia (Liberia).  The Turkish, BILSAT-1, satellite has also returned good test images of Turkey.  Further testing and ‘fine-tuning’ of the satellites and their cameras will continue over the next two weeks.

An enhanced DMC satellite for China, currently under construction at the Surrey Space Centre, will join the DMC when it is launched in early 2005.