On August 11th, Capella Space proudly launched its 13th mission, “A Sky Full of SARs.” This mission is a tribute to our European customers, honoring their unwavering support and dedication. These first light images signal the expansion of our constellation—a new chapter in our journey to provide unparalleled synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery to the world and provide global transparency for an evolving planet.
Paying Tribute to Europe: A Mission with Meaning
The name “A Sky Full of SARs” draws inspiration from the popular British song “A Sky Full of Stars,” symbolizing our leadership in space, our SAR technology heritage, and our critical business activities across Europe. Continuing our homage to Europe, we’ve featured a phoenix on our mission patch. This immortal bird from Greek mythology embodies the resolve and resilience that drives the Capella team toward continued progress.
A Partnership Beyond Borders
Launched in partnership with Rocket Lab from Mahia, New Zealand, this mission follows the quick success of placing Capella’s C-14 in commercial operations following the SpaceX Bandwagon-1 mission. C-13 operates in a mid-inclination orbit at 53 degrees—a crucial position for capturing key areas of interest, ensuring we continue to deliver precise, reliable data to our global customers.
Constantly Advancing: Reliable automation and best-in-class imagery
Capella is constantly pushing the boundaries of our capabilities both from space and on the ground. First light SAR imagery from C-13 includes higher-resolution, broader-swath data at leading resolution. Continued on-the-ground improvements means Capella will soon be introducing advanced SAR data-processing capabilities, improved capacity and decreased latency across the entire constellation.
C-13 was also a testament to the importance of Capella’s emphasis on automation. In close to 14 hours we were able to achieve primary commissioning of the latest third-generation satellite to join our existing constellation to enable us to quickly collect and downlink first light imagery.
We would not have been able to achieve this without our highly-technical and dedicated team, leading the charge toward a future where heavy automation enhances the speed and safety of all space operations.
First light images available on our Open Data Gallery.
Stay tuned for more announcements about upcoming launches for Capella.
