Reduced resolution image of Sydney Harbour, as captured by SPOT 7.

Airbus Defence and Space published the first images obtained from the SPOT 7 satellite just three days after its launch on 30 June.

Over only a few hours, the entire chain – from satellite programming and image acquisition to telemetry reception and processing – was successfully put into operation to deliver the new Earth Observation satellite’s first images.

The SPOT 6/7 constellation is now in place and considerably improves the capabilities and performance offered by its predecessor, SPOT 5, which has been in operation since 2002 and is scheduled to be decommissioned from commercial service during the first quarter of 2015. This new constellation offers a higher resolution, greater programming reactivity, and a much higher volume of images acquired daily (in monoscopic or stereoscopic mode).

SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 together form a constellation of high-resolution Earth observation satellites phased at 180° in the same orbit. This means that each point on the globe can be revisited on a daily basis, with wide areas covered in high precision. With both satellites in orbit, acquisition capacity will be boosted to six million square kilometres per day – an area ten times the size of France.

The first SPOT 7 images can be downloaded via FTP at ftp.astrium-geo.com/SPOT7.