* Astronomy

Spot 2 Satellite Retired
The French Spot 2 (Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre) Earth observation satellite, launched on the 22nd January, 1990 is being retired after 19 years.
The satellites design life time was intended to be only three years.
The onboard tape recorders failed in 1991 and early 1993, respectively.
The Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) decided in March 2009 to deorbit the satellite in July 2009.
The satellite is currently in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit.
The spacecraft dimensions are 2 x 2 x 3.5 m (5.60 m for the deployed solar panel).

TLE Data

SPOT 2
1 20436U 90005A   09205.13993787  .00000261  00000-0  95728-4 0  5644
2 20436 098.6613 274.5442 0064108 192.1003 167.8679 14.39772398 10955

Perigee:     761 km
Apogee:     807 km
Inclination: 98.66°
Period:       100.53 min

The SPOT-B (Systeme Probatoire d'Observation de la Terre) spacecraft is an earth observation satellite with a ground resolution better than that of the Landsat series satellites.

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