SPOT-1-2-3

French earth land resources satellite. SPOT was the French government-sponsored civil earth observation program, with support from Belgium and Sweden. Earth Observing satellite for Spot Image, France. Launched 1986 - 1993. Used the SPOT Mk.1 bus.

A single SPOT satellite provided complete coverage of the Earth every 26 days. Image products from SPOT were handled by a commercial entity, SPOT-Image Corp.

The spacecraft was 3-Axis stabilized to 0.1 deg using momentum wheels. A single solar array generated 1000 W (BOL) power. Downlink at 8 GHz and 2 x 25 Mbps. A hydrazine propulsion system provided orbit maintenance.

The HRV (High Resolution Visible) imaging payload provided 20 meter resolution multispectral imagery and 10 meter panchromatic imagery using push-broom sensors. HRV covered the following spectral bands: 0.5 - 0.59 µ m, 0.61 - 0.68 µ m, 0.79 - 0.89 µm; in addition to the panchromatic band: 0.51 - 0.73 µ m. The field of view was 4.13 deg in both modes (multispectral and panchromatic) with 3000 pixels per multispectral line and 6000 pixels per panchromatic line. The observed strip was 60 km wide (swath width). On-board recorder capacity was 22 minutes for both modes. The HRV mass was 250 kg. The spacecraft carried two identical HRVs to provide a total of 117 km swath (with 3 km overlap).