The first imaging satellite to be developed by South African-based Dragonfly Aerospace is due to be launched at Cape Canaveral as part of SpaceX’s Transporter-6 mission today.
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This is the first of a seven-satellite constellation for customer EOSDA (EOS Data Analytics) in low Earth orbit. The remaining six will be deployed over the next three years.
EOS SAT is the world’s first agriculture-focused satellite constellation, providing the agriculture and forestry industry with high-quality data to support efficient and sustainable practices.
Speaking to IOL, Dragonfly Aerospace CEO and Co-founder Bryan Dean said that images obtained from Dragonfly’s EOS SAT-1 would deliver valuable information for harvest monitoring, application mapping, seasonal planning and assessments that analyse information such as soil moisture, yield prediction and biomass levels.
“This data will help growers reduce carbon dioxide emissions and develop sustainable agricultural methods,” he said, adding that such information would have valuable environmental benefits for the planet by preventing natural habitats from being diminished for crop growth and maintaining biodiversity.
“Equipped with two DragonEye electro-optical imagers, EOS SAT-1 will provide 44km swath panchromatic and multispectral imagery across 11 spectral bands at close to 1m resolution – making it one of the most capable imaging satellites in LEO,” he said.
“This is a key moment for Dragonfly Aerospace, and we are thrilled to be delivering EOS SAT-1 with a number of firsts – the first imaging satellite designed and built by Dragonfly, the first microsatellite to be manufactured in South Africa since 2009, the first satellite of the EOS SAT constellation and the first agri-focused constellation in space.”
“This has been an important project for our whole team and has allowed us to demonstrate our capabilities, not just in producing high-performance electro-optical imagers, but in designing and manufacturing a full imaging satellite system.”
“We are extremely excited and waiting in anticipation for the SpaceX Transporter-6 launch.”
“We look forward to supporting EOSDA with its mission to launch the next six satellites by 2025,” Dean added.
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Picture: Cape{town}Etc Library