Space Missions | Top Sat

TopSat was successfully launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia on 27th October 2005 on a Kosmos 3M rocket into a polar low Earth orbit. After an initial period of commissioning, TopSat was declared operational in December 2005. To date the TopSat camera has been operating successfully for over 2 and a half years.

TopSat is a mission designed to demonstrate the capabilities of small satellites for classically high value remote sensing missions. The mission, conceived by QinetiQ , produces 2.86m resolution imagery and allows the direct transmission of the image data to a local mobile ground station. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory ( RAL) has developed a diffraction limited, obstruction free camera which, when combined with an agile Surrey Satellite ( SSTL ) spacecraft capable of pitch compensation, allows the highly demanding optical performance characteristics to be achieved.

It uses an innovative, compact optical system providing 2.5m resolution panchromatic and 5m multi-spectral imagery over a wide swath, together with a downlink direct to local users. The programme was funded by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the British National Space Centre ( BNSC ) Mosaic small satellite initiative and included provision for the spacecraft, ground segment, commercial launch and 6 months of planned demonstration. The total mission cost was in the region of £13M.