Germany, 15 June 2007: The German radar satellite TerraSAR-X was successfully launched on June 15th from the Russian Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. With its active antenna, the satellite will record new high-quality X-band radar images of the entire planet whilst circling Earth in a polar orbit at an altitude of 514 kilometres. TerraSAR-X will carry out its task for five years, independently of weather conditions, cloud cover or daylight, and will be able to provide radar images with a resolution of up to one metre.
The launch is a significant milestone in the implementation of a public-private-partnership (PPP) between the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and Infoterra’s parent company Astrium GmbH.
“It is now up to us to advance this mission”, explains Joerg Herrmann, Managing Director of Infoterra, that was founded with the specific purpose of preparing and pursuing the commercial marketing of the TerraSAR-X data.
Infoterra has thoroughly prepared these marketing activities: A reliable global distribution network as well as a secure technical infrastructure for the data sales has been established. Further, even prior to the satellite’s launch, a small, yet distinguished customer base has already been engaged, while promising negotiations with numerous further clients are currently ongoing. Last but not least, a sound portfolio of radar-based geoinformation services has been pre-developed and is ready to be brought
into the market.
Infoterra anticipates that the first preliminary datasets will be delivered in about three months, the full data quality and the satellite’s full operationality will be reached six months after launch.
