stromgade
stromgade.bsky.social
stromgade
@stromgade.bsky.social
News about Earth Observation. Author of http://satelliteobservation.net and http://therestlesstechnophile.com . Views my own.
These digital terrain models are why CNES is funding the mission, as they are needed for defense applications (for low level flights, artillery, etc). Airbus will also sell standard 2D images with 0.5m resolution
July 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
The CO3D sats are based on the S250 platform, which is derived from the Arrow one used by Oneweb but a tad heavier (285kg). Operating as two separate stereo pairs, they will build 3d maps with 1m vertical resolution.
July 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Tonight's Vega launch is critical for France: it carries the microcarb scientific satellite on top, as well as 4 CO3D optical satellites below, built by and for Airbus with joint @cnes.fr funding
July 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
But it's much more likely it is this
July 11, 2025 at 8:13 AM
I was thinking this was the telescope's aperture but I think it was a mistake
July 11, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Even crazier Non Earth Imaging from @Maxar
. 1.9cm resolution. Yes cm as in centimeter
www.linkedin.com/posts/susann...
July 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Flat sat antenna (oneweb?) on a French Serval SOF version. To fit it they had to remove the gunshot detector apparently. From Amaël Kotlarski on twitter
April 1, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The CO3D french optical sats (optimized for surface model reconstruction) will launch in June 2025 according to CNES: cnes.fr/projets/co3d
December 9, 2024 at 10:05 PM
November 30, 2024 at 7:20 PM
A nice application of orbital plane precession with worldview legion 3 & 4: they were launched together but 3 orbits at 450km altitude whereas 4 is at 700km, so their planes are moving apart
November 21, 2024 at 9:33 PM
The Umbra satellite pair performing bistatic SAR has a very close separation, ~200km and almost purely along the track.
March 11, 2024 at 4:39 PM
Nope, it's workable
March 11, 2024 at 4:37 PM
Seems stable
March 5, 2024 at 6:49 PM
Here it is!
March 5, 2024 at 6:48 PM
As pointed out by OrbitalFocus.uk, the Chinese TJS-11 mystery satellite has circularized in GEO at 120°East.
March 5, 2024 at 6:47 PM
French multinational military space exercise AsterX 2024 has started:

air.defense.gouv.fr/cde-asterx-en
March 4, 2024 at 1:41 PM
Seems like command to line of sight is not such a bad idea for self-defense against much faster maneuvrable ennemies (*conditions apply)
February 6, 2024 at 9:00 PM
ISRO roadmap in intelligence satellites, found on reddit/r/ISRO. Combines a low orbit multi-sensor constellation and a GEO 5m imager. A big focus on embedded AI too.
January 15, 2024 at 8:36 PM
I think there's also a case for OTH radar if you want early warning (the US have a program on that). And also considering what would be the implications of a see-to-ground channel able to detect explosions and tactical rockets/missiles like envisionned for the SBIRS staring mode
December 28, 2023 at 4:58 PM
Spacetrack has messed up its catalog: Electron and CZ-5 launch have the same ID
December 18, 2023 at 12:38 PM
The database of observation satellite has been updated, with the notable additions being a lot of Chinese Yaogan 39/40 trios, and the latest SpaceX transporter launch:
satelliteobservation.net/2017/11/26/a...
December 3, 2023 at 8:33 PM
Currently reading "Space Commander", the book by the first head of French Space Command. It's interesting, I'll post some notes later on the blog.
December 3, 2023 at 10:01 AM