1998 1998 headquarters berlin germany area served worldwide key people ryan johnson ceo number of employees 110 website blackbridge.com rapideye two of 5 rapideye satellites rapideye s s band antenna rapideye ag was a german geospatial information provider focused on assisting in management decision making through services based on their own earth observation imagery . the company operated a five satellite constellation producing 5 meter resolution imagery that was designed and implemented by macdonald dettwiler mda of richmond canada . today rapideye refers to the constellation of 5 earth observation satellites owned and operated by blackbridge ag . contents 1 history 2 satellites 3 technical specifications 4 applications 5 references 6 external links history edit 1996 the rapideye business concept was designed by kayser threde gmbh based on a call for ideas from the dlr german aerospace agency on how to commercialize remote sensing in germany . 1998 rapideye was established as an independent company in munich with seed financing from a few private investors and vereinigte hagelversicherung a german agricultural insurance provider . in 2004 funding was secured for the rapideye satellite constellation and ground segment with the help of the european union the state of brandenburg germany a banking consortium consisting of commerzbank edc export development canada and kfw banking group . through a contract with the ccc canadian commercial corporation macdonald dettwiler mda was awarded the contract as the prime contractor to build rapideye s satellite system . originally located in munich the company relocated 60 km southwest of berlin to brandenburg an der havel in 2004 . 2008 rapideye earned iso 9001 2000 certification in april from t v nord . on august 29 2008 a dnepr rocket a refurbished icbm missile was successfully launched from baikonur in kazakhstan carrying rapideye s constellation of five earth observation satellites designed and implemented by macdonald dettwiler mda of richmond canada . 2 2009 after the satellites completed their mpar phase consisting of testing and calibration they became commercially operational in february 2009 . 2011 rapideye files for bankruptcy protection on 2011 05 30 . 3 4 2011 rapideye blackbridge ltd. of lethbridge alberta canada acquired rapideye ag on the 29th of august . 5 on december 18 2012 the company announced that it has successfully relocated the company headquarters to berlin germany . 6 on november 6 2013 rapideye officially changed its name to blackbridge . 1 2014 blackbridge ltd. announces new constellation called rapideye 7 2015 planet labs announces the acquisition of rapideye 8 satellites edit five identical satellites built by surrey satellite technology ltd. sstl 9 of guildford subcontracted by macdonald dettwiler mda each satellite is based on an evolution of the flight proven sstl 100 bus . each satellite measures less than one cubic meter and weighs 150 kg bus payload . each of rapideye s five satellites contain identical sensors are equally calibrated and travel on the same orbital plane at an altitude of 630 km . together the 5 satellites are capable of collecting over 4 million km of 5 m resolution 5 band color imagery every day . sensors the jena optronik 10 multi spectral imager the jena spaceborne scanner jss 56 is a pushbroom sensor carried on each satellite . each sensor is capable of collecting image data in five distinct bands of the electromagnetic spectrum blue 440 510 nm green 520 590 nm red 630 690 nm red edge 690 730 nm and near infrared 760 880 nm . the nominal resolution on the ground is 5 meters corresponding to niirs 2 . rapideye s satellites are the first commercial satellites to include the red edge band which is sensitive to changes in chlorophyll content . studies show that this band can assist in monitoring vegetation health improve species separation and help in measuring protein and nitrogen content in biomass . technical specifications edit overview 11 number of satellites 5 spacecraft lifetime 7 years orbit altitude 630 km in sun synchronous orbit global revisit time daily off nadir 5.5 days at nadir inclination 97.8 degrees solar synchron equator crossing time 11 00 am approximately ground sampling distance nadir 6 5 m pixel size orthorectified 5 m swath width 77 km on board data storage up to 1500 km of image data per orbit image capture capacity 4 million km2 day sensor performance specifications 440 510 nm blue 520 590 nm green 630 685 nm red 690 730 nm red edge 760 850 nm near ir applications edit imagery from the rapideye constellation can provide geospatial information to the following industries agriculture the rapideye constellation is capable of field based regional or global scale agricultural monitoring on a frequent revisit cycle . the information derived from the imagery can assist farmers in precision farming operations agricultural insurers in damage assessment and risk management or governments in food security and environmental compliance monitoring . forestry satellite based information is increasingly being used by governments and commercial operators to assess forest status measure the environmental and economical sustainability of forest operations and monitor illegal logging and deforestation . security & emergency fast turnaround of imagery showing current ground conditions following a natural or man made disaster is essential for crisis management authorities in assessing the situation and helping to better coordinate rescue teams . environment satellite imagery can provide valuable information to governmental agencies or industries that monitor the environmental impact of human activities . spatial solutions rapideye satellite imagery is used as background imagery for a variety of purposes including mapping navigation flight simulation gaming and as an integral component in geospecific 3d modeling . energy & infrastructure the rapideye constellation can monitor pipeline and transmission corridors and identify problems on the ground such as vegetation encroachment nearby buildings development of roads or leaks . it can provide land cover and land use classification data to telecommunication firms to assist in planning their antenna network . references edit a b blackbridge delivering the world . blackbridge.com . video of the launch provided by russian space agency roscosmos insolvenz ratgeber 15 . juni 2011 . space news 3 jun 2011 . blackbridge delivering the world . rapideye.de . blackbridge delivering the world . rapideye.com . blackbridge secures 20.25 million funding for rapideye . geospatialworld.net . satellite maker planet labs acquires blackbridge s geospatial business . techcrunch.com . sstl s rapideye blog 22 may 2008 . jena optronik . re rapideye satellite constellation . external links edit planetlabs blog announcement on acquisition of rapideye and blackbridge geospatial holdings rapideye ag description of rapideye from the earth observation portal rapideye image gallery eyefind online archive discovery tool v t e earth reconnaissance satellites excluding russia and the united states china imint jssw fsw 0 fsw 1 fsw 2 fsw 3 jianbing sigint jssw 3 sj 2 dq 1 france imint h lios ia & ib h lios 2a & 2b pl iades ia & ib sigint cerise cl mentine essaim elisa germany radar imint sar lupe terrasar x tandem x india imint cartosat 1 cartosat 2 cartosat 2a cartosat 2b cartosat 3 radar imint risat 1 risat 2 israel imint ofeq 5 ofeq 7 ofeq 9 eros a eros b eros c radar imint ofeq 8 tecsar ofeq 10 tecsar 2 ofek 11 italy radar imint cosmo skymed japan imint igs 1a b igs 2a b igs 3a igs 4a b igs 5a igs 6a igs 7a igs 8a b south korea imint arirang 1 arirang 2 arirang 3 turkey imint g kt rk 1 g kt rk 2 united kingdom imint topsat v t e orbital meteorological and remote sensing systems concepts defense weather satellite system earth observation satellite geographic information system gis weather satellite nisar icesat 2 current projects earth observing system eos gpm trmm landsat 7 quikscat terra acrimsat nmp eo 1 jason 1 ostm jason 2 jason 3 meteor 3m 1 sage iii grace aqua sorce aura cloudsat calipso npoess megha tropiques saral irs essp aquarius landsat 8 smap a train satellites aqua aura calipso cloudsat gcom w1 shizuku oco 2 copernicus programme sentinel 1 sentinel 2 sentinel 3 sentinel 4 sentinel 5 precursor sentinel 5 geostationary meteorological satellites elektro l fengyun 2 goes insat meteosat himawari 8 other satellites cbers cosmo skymed dmsp dmc eros fengyun 3 formosat 2 gosat ibuki landsat metop meteor poes radarsat 2 smos spot terrasar x theos former projects completed adeos midori adeos ii midori 2 cosmic formosat 3 envisat ers formosat 1 geosat gms himawari icesat ikonos nimbus parasol quickbird radarsat 1 seasat seawifs tiros topex poseidon uars vanguard failed oco glory cancelled nmp eo 3 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title rapideye & oldid 740688351 categories earth observation 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