Launch of the international Disaster Monitoring Constellation; the development of a novel international partnership in space

Three spacecraft for the UK, Turkey and Nigeria were launched together in September 2003, to join Algeria's satellite, AlSat-1, in the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. has designed, built and launched the world's first constellation to provide daily global Earth observation coverage at moderate resolution in three spectral bands. This international initiative will provide daily images for global disaster monitoring, as well as supporting each partner nation's indigenous remote sensing requirements. The DMC programme establishes a novel model for international collaboration, and demonstrates how small satellite missions can be employed for a wide range of applications. This paper shows the first in-orbit mission results from DMC satellites including examples of unique EO data products comprising up to 600/spl times/600 km images gathered at 32-metres GSD in 3 spectral bands.