Radarsat Constellation, moving toward implementation

The Canadian Space Agency initiated the development of a three-satellite SAR mission, known as the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM), in 2005. The main objective of the mission is to assure C-band data continuity in the next decade, while allowing a greater use of data for operational applications by providing more persistent observation over Canada and better system reliability. The Phase B contract was awarded in November 2008 for a period of 16 months. The Space and Ground Segment Requirements reviews were held at the end of February 2009. The spacecraft and Ground Segment concepts were adopted and design decisions have been taken to allow preliminary design to proceed. A Payload and Bus Preliminary Design reviews were held in Fall 2009. A Mission Preliminary Design review was held in February 2010. The CSA is currently in phase C and preparing for the Critical Design Review. Several challenges, such as the implementation of the ship detection mode or the final selection of the launcher must be resolved and important decisions must be taken to allow the progress of the program toward full implementation. The first spacecraft will be built and tested as a proto-flight and launched in 2014. The following two spacecrafts will then be built and tested in parallel and launched in 2015.