France in Space #205

** 1: SPOT 5 SUCCESSFULLY ORBITED!

On May 3rd, 2002 at 10:31 p.m., Kourou local time, French Guyana, the
Ariane 42P European launcher intentionally placed the SPOT 5 Earth
observation satellite into a temporary orbit, 20 kilometers below its
nominal orbit at 832km. The SPOT 5 program settled in 1994 is the last
satellite of the SPOT satellites constellation and will provide a
continuity of service through to 2007. SPOT 5 was developed by CNES (French
Space Agency) in partnership with Belgium and Sweden. Astrium was the
satellite prime contractor. Alcatel Space supplied many items of equipment
and was prime contractor for the Vegetation instrument for the observation
of the global vegetation cover
[CNES Press Release, 05/05/2002]

** 2: MILITARY AND CIVIL APPLICATIONS FOR SPOT 5

On Tuesday April 25th, 2002, Laurent Collet-Bignon, Deputy Director of DGA
(French Defense Procurement Agency), GŽrard Brachet, General Manager of
CNES (French Space Agency) and Jean Marc-Nasr, Chairman and CEO of Spot
Image signed an agreement governing the use of the High-Resolution
Stereoscopic (HRS) aboard the SPOT 5 satellite, which is set for launch
early May by an Ariane launch vehicle. The HRS is able to acquire, almost
simultaneously, two images of the same 120-km-by-160-km ground strip, under
different angles, and to generate digital data for mapping the ground
relief in three dimensions. Data obtained through the HRS will find uses in
many civil applications, in particular natural disaster management, flood
monitoring, mobile telephone network planning… As for military
applications, the HRS data will come in addition to France’s other military
observation means and more specifically satellite resources.
[CNES Press Release, 04/26/2002]

[From CNES Press Release]