COSMO-SkyMed: the satellites continue to observe Abruzzo
After the earthquake of 6 April, COSMO-SkyMed has continued to acquire images of Abruzzo for the Department of Civil Protection, for the purpose of surveying the earth movements in detail. The Departments objectives were particularly demanding due to the large size of the area concerned and the number of images that had to be acquired before they could have reliable measurements using interferometric techniques. Managing to reach the objectives in only a few months is a success story that was made possible by the unique operational capacity of COSMO. Read more
A Delta II Stage 2 Rocket Body that was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base for the COSMO 1 mission on the 8th June 2007, is predicted to re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 16th August @ 12:32 GMT ± 24 hours.
The Boeing Company, through its commercial launch business, successfully launched the first of four Italian Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation (COSMO) SkyMed spacecraft June 7 aboard a Delta II rocket. Lift-off occurred at 7:34 p.m. Pacific time from Pad SLC-2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. A Delta II 7420-10 configuration launch vehicle deployed the COSMO-SkyMed spacecraft to low-Earth orbit approximately 58 minutes after liftoff. Read more
A crowd of Italians at Vandenberg Air Force Base bid arrivederci to a Delta 2 rocket Thursday night, eliciting cheers and tears from the flag-carrying spectators. The approximately 12-story tall rocket roared off Space Launch Complex 2 at 7:34 p.m. as about 150 Italians celebrated the departure of their Earth-imaging satellite riding in the Delta's nosecone.
A party atmosphere surrounds a seemingly routine Delta 2 rocket that is poised to launch an Earth imaging satellite Thursday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a mission for the Italian Space Agency. The commercial launch is targeting departure between 7:21 p.m. to 7:34 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-2. Riding aboard Delta is the first of four satellites that will make up the Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation (COSMO) SkyMed.
A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket in the 7420-10 vehicle configuration will launch the Italian COSMO-SkyMed 1 X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Earth-imaging satellite, from SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, between 02:21-02:34 GMT June 8th.
Alcatel Alenia Space today announced that it will provide the Defence User Ground Segment for the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed earth observation program to the French Ministry of Defence. The Euro 32 million contract has been awarded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) which acts as a procurement agency for the Italian and French Ministries of Defence. This contract is part of the French and Italian inter-governmental agreement to ensure inter-operability and data exchange between Italian Cosmo-SkyMed and French Helios II systems.
The equipment, designed and build by Alcatel Alenia Space in Italy, will be installed in the French Ministry of Defence military centre of Creil (Paris neighbourhood).
The Cosmo-SkyMed contract, valued at Euro 775 million, was awarded by ASI to Alcatel Alenia Space on December 21, 2004 to build the first three satellites of the constellation. Cosmo-SkyMed program is part of ORFEO, a dual-use (civilian and military) earth observation satellite network, developed jointly between France and Italy. The system consists of 2 satellites equipped with advanced electro-optical payloads, known as Pleiades, and 4 satellites equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), known as Cosmo-SkyMed.
"This contract is a great achievement for Alcatel Alenia Space as it reiterates the importance and value of the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed constellation, one of the most sophisticated and best performing observation systems in the world. As prime contract on the Cosmo-SkyMed program, Alcatel Alenia Space is the industrial leader in charge of a team with significant involvement from other Italian space companies, including Telespazio. Work on the constellation is proceeding very rapidly, with the objective of launching the first satellite by the last quarter of 2006 and the remaining ones at 8 month intervals, so as to make Cosmo-SkyMed fully operational by the end of 2008" - Carlo Aleberto Penazzi, CEO of Alcatel Alenia Space in Italy.
Cosmo-SkyMed satellites are designed to provide monitoring, surveillance and intelligence data at any time whatever the weather conditions. Cosmo-SkyMed can be used for a great variety of applications by military customers as well as by civilian institutions and scientific communities for environmental monitoring (including prevention of natural disasters and topographic mapping in high-resolution among others).