RapidEye 1

 2008-040C

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RapidEye AG of Brandenberg an der Havel launched five SSTL-150 sats for medium res, 6.5m resolution observation. The system will provide rapid-response data products for agricultural and forestry use, such as storm assessment damage. RapidEye was founded in 1998 by the Vereingte Hagel insurance firm. After bankruptcy in 2011 the company was bought by Iunctus Geomatics Corp of Lethridge, Alberta, Canada and became RapidEye Canada, Ltd.

The satellites were built and integrated by SSTL/Guildford, while the overall RapidEye space, ground and processing system prime contractor was MacDonald Dettwiler (Richmond, British Columbia). The imager was from Jena Optronik.

The satellites were named Tachys, Mati, Choma, Choros and Trochia, after the greek words TauAlphaChiUpsilon

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, MuAlphaTauIota, ChiOmegaMuAlpha, ChiOmegaRhoOmicron

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and TauRhoOmicronChiIotaAlpha, meaning Rapid, Eye, Earth, Space and Orbit or Path.

620 km SSO.

0.8m sized box, 150 kg. Solar arrays on 3 sides. Dnepr launch. Kosmotras.

All 5 satellites seemed to still be maintaining orbit in 2014.

RE-1
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
2008 Aug 29	0715:58	Launch by Dnepr	KB
	0718	T+1:49? Stage 1 sep
	0720	T+4:36? GO
	0720?	T+4:41? St 2 sep
	0720?	T+4:45? DU on
	0730	Plume shield sep
	0730	DS MECO
	0730:59	Satellite separation
	0731:05	Sat-5 sep

Payload:

• CCD imager 0.1m aperture. 5 bands 0.44-0.85mu.