The Satellogic team is proud to share that the company has successfully delivered two new spacecraft into LEO — the satellites were launched via a Long March 2D rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China, joining Satellogic’s eight other satellites that are already on-orbit.
This launch is but the first of many planned such events scheduled for 2020. Satellogic is excited by how the company has grown alongside the firm’s customers’ needs and has increased the capabilities of the fleet, allowing the firm to consistently improve what is offered to our customers in regard to geospatial analytics and insights for decision making.
Both satellites are equipped with two payloads: a multi-spectral camera with 1 meter resolution and a hyperspectral camera with 30 meter resolution. During launch, each stage was completed successfully and on schedule, as follows:
- 03:00 — 1st stage separation.
- 03:05:30 — Main payload separation.
- 03:06:00 — NewSat-7 separation, powered up for the first time in space. A new satellite was born: Sophie.
- 03:06:30 — NewSat-8 separation, powered up for the first time in space. A new satellite was born: Marie.
- 03:31 — First pass over Troll ground station in Antarctica, first telemetry packets received, Sophie and Marie are part of the Aleph constellation and welcomed to our space family! Early verification of satellites’ good health through beacons. Each subsystem responsible checked online telemetry.
- 07:25 — Later pass over Svalbard North Pole ground station, tests and verifications completed to understand satellite health. Early orbits stored telemetry download, analysis and maneuvers for satellite stabilization and verification process performed by the Operations and Commissioning team at the company’s Buenos Aires office.