Earth observation satellites
The earth was photographed from space for the first time by the Russian cosmonaut German Titov. The wonderful colours were amazing and people began to understand that space travel should not simply be directed towards looking at the planets and probing into the outer reaches of space. Planet earth also represented an important area of research. This heralded the birth of the third era of exploration on the earth began: earth observation started to develop.
Observation from earth developed rapidly. The initial photographic systems became increasingly specialized, e.g. multispectral cameras, and radar technologies were later also incorporated into earth observation. Today, earth observation from space has become firmly established as an independent area of research.
But the combination of different satellite data from diverse sources including environmental and meteorological satellites today yields information that is extremely important for research into climate change, cartography, ozone breakdown and change in land masses.
EADS and its predecessor companies have played major roles in research programmes and projects:
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multispectral cameras, e.g. MOMS, on space stations
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the radar satellites ERS 1 and 2
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the optical satellites in the Spot Series
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the Envisat environmental satellite
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the geo-oriented satellites Champ and Grace
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and the CryoSat satellite for investigating climate change
In future, earth observation satellites will increase in importance and make a key contribution to research by providing scientists with information on the status of the earth and its atmosphere.
