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COSMO 1, 2, 3, 4 (COSMO-SkyMed)

COSMO 1 [Alenia]

COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin observation) is an Earth observation program of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) developed by Alenia Spazio, a Finmeccanica company, as prime contractor. The system will monitor the entire globe and the Mediterranean area in particular, providing information for a number of applications thanks to the high resolution of the images acquired, the reduced revisit times over the observed sites and the speed with which the data will be made available to the users.

In constructing the COSMO-SkyMed system, Alenia Spazio will coordinate an industrial team made up of several companies including some from the Finmeccanica group, such as Telespazio, responsible for the development of the ground segment and management in orbit, and Galileo Avionica and Laben for the technologically advanced parts of the platform and radar.

The main objectives of the system are controlling national territory and monitoring environmental disasters such as floods and landslides; monitoring coastlines, seas and internal waters; agricultural monitoring to check on harvests and manage treatment cycles; cartography using images with a resolution in the order of one meter.

The dual-use (civilian and military) of the system will also allow other more official applications for territorial protection and strategic defense.

COSMO-SkyMed will therefore provide Italy with one of the world's most technologically advanced observation systems to guarantee greater security and an improved standard of living.

COSMO-SkyMed is made up of four satellites called COSMO 1 - 4 and related ground infrastructures. Alenia Spazio will build the four satellites equipped with high-resolution, X-band (9.6 GHz) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and it will be possible to integrate the system with the optical satellites of the French Pléiades-HR optical constellation. The COSMO satellites are based on Alenias Prima Bus.

All the satellites will be fitted with particularly flexible and innovative data transmission equipment operating in the X-band with a fixed antenna to allow the high-speed (300 Mbps) transmission of the data to the ground. Furthermore, an on-board recording system will acquire images of areas the satellites pass over even when there is no link to the ground stations.

Nation: Italy
Type / Application: Earth observation (Radar)
Operator: ASI
Contractors: Alenia Spazio
Equipment: X-band (9.6 GHz) synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
Configuration: Prima Bus
Propulsion:
Power: 2 deployable solar arrays, batteries
Lifetime: 5 years
Mass: 1900 kg
Orbit: 619 km × 619 km, 97.86°
Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
COSMO 1 2007-023A 08.06.2007 Va SLC-2W Delta-7420-10C
COSMO 2 2007-059A 09.12.2007 Va SLC-2W Delta-7420-10C
COSMO 3 2008-054A 25.10.2008 Va SLC-2W Delta-7420-10C
COSMO 4 2010-060A 06.11.2010 Va SLC-2W Delta-7420-10C

References:

  • Alenia Spazio Website

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