Airbus is set to elevate its Earth observation capabilities with the launch of the Pléiades Neo Next program. This initiative marks an expansion of Airbus’s “very high-resolution” Earth observation constellation, promising enhanced satellite assets and capabilities, including improved native resolution.
“The Pléiades Neo Next program builds on the success of our existing Pléiades Neo constellation, serving government and commercial customers worldwide. This new initiative will further elevate our standards of excellence in quality, performance, and reliability to deliver images, geo-intelligence services, and applications,” said Karen Florschütz, Executive Vice President Connected Intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space.
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The new constellation
Funded, manufactured, and operated entirely by Airbus Defence and Space, the Pléiades Neo Next program opens doors for various sectors, ranging from defense and intelligence to agriculture, environment, maritime, disaster response, and beyond. The company says that users can expect “seamless access” to the satellites, with the ability to directly task them up to a few dozen minutes prior to satellite passes over their areas of interest.
Images captured by the satellites will be delivered through customer’s Direct Receiving Stations (DRS) on the ground or via the company’s digital platform. The collaboration between Pléiades Neo and Pléiades Neo Next satellites promises a higher revisit rate anywhere on Earth, offering enhanced spatial resolution and geolocation accuracy unparalleled in the market, according to Airbus.
In addition to bolstering native resolution, the development of Pléiades Neo Next will see improvements in the ground segment, DRS, and the digital platform (called OneAtlas). These enhancements aim to optimize the capacity for imagery requests and streamline the process between request, capture, and reception.
Simultaneously, Airbus says is exploring new frontiers in Earth observation with the development of capabilities based on stratospheric platforms.
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From Pléiades Neo to the Next generation
The prior iteration of the Pléiades Neo constellation already showcased significant advancements in Earth observation technology.
Consisting of two identical spacecraft – originally four, but we’ll talk about that in a minute – with 30-cm resolution, positioned 180° apart in orbit, the constellation provided reactive tasking and the capability to revisit any point on Earth at least twice daily.
Notably, each satellite contributed half a million square kilometers of imagery per day to Airbus’s database. Furthermore, they facilitated multi-stereo acquisitions, enabling the creation of reliable 3D textured models and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). With very high-resolution imagery available within 40 minutes in emergency mode or less than two hours in routine mode, the satellites enabled precise identification of mobile or fixed targets.
Lastly, these satellites provided invaluable data for precise large-scale mapping in both military and civilian applications, with a resolution scale of up to 1:2000.
The launch failure and the loss of two satellites
Nevertheless, a failure on December 21, 2022, impacted the launch of two Pléiades Neo satellites. The event marked the loss of the final two spacecraft in the four-satellite constellation, which was valued at 600 million euros.
Launched aboard Europe’s Vega C rocket from French Guiana, the mission swiftly turned tragic as the satellites plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after liftoff. Arianespace, the launch operator, confirmed the failure shortly after the launch, attributing it to a malfunction in the Vega C rocket’s second stage.
As a result, the Pléiades Neo constellation ended up being only half-deployed, with the two lost satellites covered by mission assurance, but never replaced.
Initial inquiries focused on anomalies detected during the ignition of the Zefiro 40 motor, resulting in a deviation from the intended trajectory and, ultimately, mission failure. Furthermore, this setback occurred amidst a turbulent history for Europe’s Vega rocket family, which has now experienced three failures in just 23 flights.
Consequently, following the investigation’s conclusion, ESA recommended the redesign of the Zefiro 40 nozzle, along with enhancements in performance modeling and two static-fire tests of the revised design. However, a subsequent failure during a ground test in June 2023, intended to validate the new nozzle design, further delays the resumption of launches for the Vega C rocket.
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