Brandenburg an der Havel - With the ability to image up to 4 Million km² of the earths surface daily, RapidEyes constellation of five satellites will download an enormous amount of data every day. To handle all of this incoming data, a seven year contract for download services has been signed between Kongsberg Satellite Services AS (KSAT) of Tromsø, Norway, and RapidEye AG.

Antennas in pole vicinity are ideal for earth observation satellites in a sun-synchronous orbit, as they allow contact to the spacecraft in every orbit, which was a key factor when contracting with KSAT, says Michael Oxfort, member of the Management Team at RapidEye.
KSAT has completed the installation of a 7.3m X-band antenna in Svalbard (approx. 78°N) to support the daily download volume of the RapidEye constellation. This new 7.3m antenna dedicated to support RapidEye will be part of our 6 large aperture antennas which together with our 2 medium sized antennas as well as a number of smaller antennas is making the site in Svalbard the largest facility for polar orbiting satellites, comments Rolf Skatteboe, President of KSAT. Download capacity on 13m antennas, also located in Svalbard, will additionally be made available to RapidEye on a special request basis.

To assure the fast availability of data, a dedicated high speed communication line between Svalbard and RapidEyes headquarters in Brandenburg will be in place to support the imagery data transmission to the processing facilities. This high speed data line together with the automated processing system will allow RapidEye to deliver data or information products and services to its customers the following day.


About Kongsberg Satellite Services:

Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) is a world leading commercial satellite centre located in Tromsø, Norway. KSAT has ground stations in Tromsø, Svalbard, Grimstad and the Antarctic and is focusing on the following two business areas:
- Ground station services, including data acquisition, TT&C support and launch support
- Near real time Earth Observation services
For more information please refer to www.ksat.no


About RapidEye:

RapidEye is a geospatial information provider focused on integrating customized and industry specific solutions into the workflow of global customers in agriculture, forestry, energy, infrastructure, government, security and emergency. In the summer of 2008, RapidEye will launch a constellation of five satellites capable of downloading over 4 million km² of high resolution, multi-spectral imagery per day. For more information please refer to www.rapideye.de


Presse-Kontakt:

RapidEye AG
Andrea Flachmann
Molkenmarkt 30, 14776 Brandenburg an der
Havel / +49 3381 8904 0 / +49 3381 8904 101/
flachmann@rapideye.de




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