At 01:21 UTC on the 1st February, the Japanese H-2A rocket will launch the IGS-Radar Spare satellite into orbit. The launch window lasts 13 minutes to 01:34 UTC.
The IGS satellites are military intelligence spacecraft, and therefore information regarding their design and operation is limited. They are built by Mitsubishi Electric, which suggests they are built on a commercial satellite bus.
The IGS satellite launching on Sunday is a radar satellite launched as an in-orbit spare. It has been suggested that it is a third generation of SAR satellites. SAR stands for Synthetic Aperture Radar, which allows the satellite to peer through clouds and observe targets at night. The satellite will most likely take over from IGS-7A (IGS-Radar 3) launched in December 2011, suggesting the mission lifetime of these satellites is 3 years. It will be followed by another IGS later this year, which will be an operational fifth generation optical satellite following the experimental fifth generation satellite launched in 2013.
You can watch the launch HERE!
The IGS satellites are military intelligence spacecraft, and therefore information regarding their design and operation is limited. They are built by Mitsubishi Electric, which suggests they are built on a commercial satellite bus.
The IGS satellite launching on Sunday is a radar satellite launched as an in-orbit spare. It has been suggested that it is a third generation of SAR satellites. SAR stands for Synthetic Aperture Radar, which allows the satellite to peer through clouds and observe targets at night. The satellite will most likely take over from IGS-7A (IGS-Radar 3) launched in December 2011, suggesting the mission lifetime of these satellites is 3 years. It will be followed by another IGS later this year, which will be an operational fifth generation optical satellite following the experimental fifth generation satellite launched in 2013.
You can watch the launch HERE!