Maxar offers a mobile access terminal that enables users to downlink electro-optical imagery from Maxar satellites and radar imagery from MDA’s Radarsat-2 as well as imagery from other commercial satellites.
Booster B1051 first launched the Demo-1 commercial crew test flight three years ago and has also launched the Radarsat Constellation Mission, the SXM-7 radio satellite, and nine Starlink missions including the 2022-03-19 flight.
Canadian government sources identified RADARSAT-2 as the satellite that will be used to collect the SAR data.
The transfer of RADARSAT-2 imagery to Ukraine under the 2015 initiative was stopped by Canada’s government in 2016 amid concerns the imagery was being used to attack specific targets in eastern Ukraine and because bureaucratic rules limited the data’s effectiveness.
Canada cut off the flow of RADARSAT-2 data to Ukraine on 2016-05-06.
Canada previously provided RADARSAT-2 imagery to Ukraine as part of an initiative announced in February 2015.
Under the 2015–2016 process, RADARSAT-2 images were downloaded to MDA, sent to the Canadian military for review, approved by Canadian diplomats, passed to the Canadian embassy in Kyiv, and then forwarded to the Ukrainian government.
The Canadian Space Agency operates the three Radarsat Constellation Mission spacecraft.
MDA operates the Radarsat-2 satellite.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster on the 2021-12-18 Vandenberg Starlink mission had previously launched Dragon’s first crew demonstration mission, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, SXM-7, and eight Starlink missions.
RADARSAT-2 offers over 20 imaging modes and has established customers in over 45 countries.
MDA owns and operates RADARSAT-2, a commercial broad-area imaging satellite.
Iceye will provide an X-band SAR satellite that will complement a C-band SAR satellite MDA previously committed to build as a successor to Radarsat-2.
MDA and ICEYE signed a distribution agreement that allows MDA to sell ICEYE’s existing and future X-band data to select RADARSAT-2 customers and to develop value-added products integrating C- and X-band SAR data.
RADARSAT-2 delivers products and services supporting marine surveillance, ice monitoring, disaster management, environmental monitoring, resource management, and mapping.
CHORUS builds on the heritage of the RADARSAT program and incorporates new technologies and operations concepts to deliver enhanced capability.
MDA’s Radarsat-2 follow-on includes a C-band synthetic-aperture radar satellite in a mid-inclination orbit capable of collecting imagery in a 700-kilometer swath at a resolution of 50 m per pixel.
MDA intends to place the Radarsat-2 follow-on into an inclined orbit to offer customers imagery of sites at different times of the day.
Radarsat-2 was built by MDA in partnership with the Canadian government and launched in 2007.
Customers will be able to task the new MDA SAR satellite to obtain imagery within one hour, compared with four hours for Radarsat-2.