- All Categories (42686)
- Data (118)
- News (237)
- Missions (44)
- Events (82)
- Tools (18)
- Activities (15)
- Campaigns (50)
- Documents (42122)
MISSIONS
Explore the European Space Agency's Earth Observation satellite missions. Learn all about ESA's dedicated Earth Explorers or collaborations with other agencies through the Third Party Missions programme.
Mission - Third Party Missions
IRS-P5 (Cartosat-1)
IRS-P5 (Cartosat-1) was a stereoscopic Earth observation satellite that generated Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and other value-added products.
Mission - Heritage Missions
JERS-1
The overall objectives of JERS-1 (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite) were the generation of global data sets with SAR and OPS sensors aimed at surveying resources, establishing an integrated Earth observation system
Mission - Heritage Missions
KOMPSAT-2
KOMPSAT-2 (Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-2), also known as Arirang-2, was developed by KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) to continue the observation programme of the KOMPSAT-1 mission.
Mission - Third Party Missions
OceanSat-2
OceanSat-2 provides service continuity for the operational users of the OCM (Ocean Colour Monitor) instrument launched in 1999 on board the predecessor IRS-P4/OceanSat-1 mission.
Mission - Third Party Missions
Pléiades
The Pléiades programme followed the SPOT programme satellite series, introducing advanced technologies in Earth observation.
Mission - Heritage Missions
QuickBird-2
QuickBird-2 was an Earth-imaging satellite. When launched in 2001, it was then the highest resolution commercial satellite.
Mission - Heritage Missions
RapidEye
Together, the five RapidEye satellites were capable of collecting over 4 million square kilometres of 5 m resolution, 5-band colour imagery every day.
Mission - Third Party Missions
IRS-R2 (ResourceSat-2)
IRS-R2 (ResourceSat-2) continues the remote sensing data services to global users provided by the ResourceSat-1 mission and also provides data with enhanced multispectral/ spatial coverage.
Mission - Heritage Missions
Seasat
On board Seasat was the first-ever space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system for science applications.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 1
SPOT 1 was designed to improve the knowledge and management of Earth's resources, detecting and forecasting phenomena involving climatology and oceanography, and monitoring human activities and natural phenomena.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 2
SPOT 2, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 3
SPOT 3, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 4
SPOT 4, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 5
SPOT 5, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Third Party Missions
SPOT 6
SPOT 6, like all the SPOT missions, is aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 7
SPOT 7 (also known as Azersky), like all of the other SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Third Party Missions
WorldView-2
WorldView-2 is an environment-monitoring satellite from Maxar which presents images as the human eye can perceive them, creating a more realistic 'true colour' view of the world.
Mission - Third Party Missions
WorldView-3
WorldView-3 is the first multi-payload, super-spectral, high-resolution commercial satellite sensor operating at an altitude of 617 km. WorldView-3 is capable of collecting up to 680,000 square km per day.
Mission - Earth Explorers
FLEX
The FLEX mission will provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity.
Mission - Third Party Missions
ICEYE
As of June 2023, 27 X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites have been launched for the ICEYE constellation. This enables all-weather Earth observation.