| December 6, 2016 | NextSpace, North America, Regional, Satellite News Feed, ST Briefs, Technology
[Via Satellite 12-06-2016] California-based start-up Capella Space is one step closer to providing hourly imagery of any location on Earth regardless of weather or light conditions via a series of 30 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites. The company has purchased a launch spot and scheduled its first satellite launch in just about one year, in December 2017, which represents the first commercial U.S. SAR satellite, and an overall pick up in the SAR market.
Traditionally, high development costs and regulatory prohibitions have made launching SAR satellites more difficult and expensive. To this day, only three countries have launched commercial SAR satellites: Germany, Italy and Canada, and to purchase an image from those satellites will run a commercial customer a price tag of $3,000 to $6,000, Capella Space co-founder and CEO Payam Banazadeh told Via Satellite.
Source: http://www.satellitetoday.com/nextspace/2016/12/06/capella-space-ceo-cost-enabling-inexpensive-sar/
