Digital Battlespace

Italy’s OPTSAT-3000 satellite launched

02nd August 2017 - 13:30 by The Shephard News Team

The Italian Ministry of Defence’s OPTSAT-3000 satellite has been launched from the Kourou European spaceport in French Guiana today, 2 August.

The satellite was delivered by Leonardo through its joint venture, Telespazio. The satellite is being placed into orbit using the VEGA European launcher system, produced by AVIO.

OPTSAT-3000 consists of a satellite in a sun-synchronous low earth orbit and a ground segment for in-orbit control and for data acquisition and processing. Once operational, the satellite's optical sensors will provide high-resolution images of the globe, providing Italy with an autonomous national Earth observation capability.

The ground segment is located over three operation centres: the Joint Satellite Remote Survey Centre in Pratica di Mare, the SICRAL Joint Management and Control Centre in Vigna di Valle and the Fucino Space Centre of Telespazio.

OPTSAT-3000 is designed to work with the second generation COSMO-Skymed system of radar satellites, integrating optical and radar data to provide the Italian Ministry of Defence with information characterised by extreme accuracy, resolution and completeness and with state-of-the-art analysis and operational tools..