The Missions TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X

TerraSAR-X is Germany's first national remote sensing satellite being implemented in a public-private partnership between the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and EADS Astrium GmbH, with a significant financial contribution from the industrial partner. This radar satellite, launched at June 15th 2007 will supply high-quality radar data for purposes of scientific observation of the Earth for a period of at least five years. At the same time it is designed to satisfy the steadily growing demand of the private sector for remote sensing data in the commercial market. This contribution will briefly describe the development of the TerraSAR-X concept in the context of previous national SAR-related activities, the public-private partnership scheme, the roles and responsibilities of the partners as well as the overall project organization. The mission and system design will be described, followed by an overview of the satellite, the related Ground Segment and the applied data policy. The presentation will however focus on the actual mission status by providing an overview of the pre-launch activities, the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) as well as first results of the activities in the Commissioning Phase. Finally an outlook will be given on the activities to come including the TanDEM-X mission. The TanDEM-X mission is based on an add-on satellite almost identical to the TerraSAR-X satellite, orbiting in close formation with it. Radar images of these two satellites allow for the generation of a world-wide DEM according to the emerging HRTI-3 standard within less than three years