After leaving the Airbus premises in Madrid on 24 September, the Spanish high-resolution land imaging mission, known as SEOSAT-Ingenio, has arrived safely at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, where it will be prepared for launch later this year.

SEOSAT-ingenio arrives in Kourou

SEOSAT-ingenio arrives in Kourou (Credits: ESA)

Packed safely within protective containers, SEOSAT-Ingenio was transported on an Antonov aircrat together with its co-passenger, the CNES French space agency’s Taranis satellite – both scheduled for launch on a Vega rocket in November.

Offloading SEOSAT-Ingenio (credits: 2020 CNES-Arianespace/Optique video du GSC – JM Guillon)

Following the airplane off-loading procedures, SEOSAT-Ingenio was then transferred on a dedicated trailer for transport to Guiana Space Centre.

SEOSAT-Ingenio being prepared for transport to Guiana Space Centre (credts: 2020 CNES-Arianespace/Optique video du GSC – JM Guillon)

During the transfer, the convoy respected the speed limit of 50 km/h to avoid any shock to the satellite. After a journey of around two and a half hours, SEOSAT-Ingenio arrived at the Payload Preparation Complex.

Ready to go (Credits: 2020 CNES-Arianespace/Optique video du GSC – JM Guillon)

The arrival of the satellite marks a significant milestone for SEOSAT-Ingenio – an optical Earth-observation mission which will provide high-resolution images of Earth’s land cover.

SEOSAT–Ingenio, which stands for Spanish Earth-observation satellite, carries a state-of-the-art dual camera that has the ability to image Earth’s land with a resolution of 2.5 m. It has the capability to look sideways, enabling it to access any point on Earth within just three days.

Artist’s impression of SEOSAT-Ingenio in orbit (Credits: ESA – P. Carril)

Information from SEOSAT–Ingenio will be used by different Spanish civil, institutional and government users, but also provide information for a wide variety of applications. These include cartography, monitoring land use, urban development and water management. The data will also be used to help map natural disasters such as floods, wildfires and earthquakes.

Read more about SEOSAT-Ingenio.