Orbital Sidekick announces upcoming launch of its most powerful satellite, Aurora

Orbital Sidekick (OSK) announced today the upcoming launch of its newest and most powerful hyperspectral imaging satellite: “Aurora.” Aurora leverages OSK’s previous experience collecting and analysing hyperspectral data to provide action-oriented insights on the world around us, with a broad focus on sustainability. The Aurora satellite will serve OSK’s customers in the energy, mining, and defence sectors, including expanding contracts and pilot program opportunities for oil and gas pipeline monitoring and methane mapping, clean energy resource exploration, sustainable mining practices, and wildfire risk mitigation.

"We're excited to be launching Aurora to help provide consistent monitoring services across all of our clients as well as further the exploration for clean energy sources globally. Working with Astro Digital, OSK will be able to focus on the payload and extract information from our unique and proprietary hyperspectral data with the utmost precision," said Dan Katz, CEO & Co-Founder of Orbital Sidekick.

The Orbital Sidekick Aurora Satellite is a 30 kg precursor to the six 100 kg ESPA class GHOSt satellites scheduled for launch in 2022. Seattle-based launch services provider Spaceflight will be co-ordinating the launch with a total of 36 payloads onboard the SpaceX Transporter-2 rideshare mission, taking place 25 June 2021 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida.

Aurora will capture more than 450 spectral bands in the visible to shortwave infrared light spectrum (400 - 2500 nm) with a pixel size of approximately 30 m, making it the highest resolution commercial hyperspectral imagery available to date.

Orbital Sidekick’s vision is to lead the Energy Transition by building the most robust remote sensing and analytics capability in existence. OSK’s proprietary analytics platform and hyperspectral payload architecture provide persistent space-based monitoring solutions powered by Spectral IntelligenceTM. This unique radiometric speciation and change detection capability enables unparalleled target monitoring services for both commercial and defence users on a global scale. Orbital Sidekick is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

 

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/15062021/orbital-sidekick-announces-upcoming-launch-of-its-most-powerful-satellite-aurora/