The United States launched the Harbinger satellite in May 2019 to demonstrate synthetic aperture radar imaging capability and high-bandwidth downlink capabilities in a small satellite.
Harbinger is the first satellite built by York Space Systems to reach orbit.
Harbinger is designed to test whether an inexpensive commercial satellite equipped with a synthetic aperture radar can quickly deliver Earth imagery to soldiers.
Harbinger is the largest of the three satellites and was built by York Space Systems for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Systems Defense Command to test York Space Systems’ new smallsat platform.