The satellite constellation was successfully launched in August 2008. Since the launch, RapidEye’s prime contractor, MDA (MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.) has been conducting the commissioning period on both the space and ground segment in which system performance and product quality were thoroughly measured, analyzed, and verified.
“This is where MDA ‘hands us the keys’ to the system,” said Wolfgang Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye. “Not only can we begin selling our data products, but this is also the point where we can integrate our imagery into the services we’re currently working on. This milestone is as significant for us as the launch of the satellites. We have overcome a lot of obstacles to get here and if it weren’t for the talent and dedication of so many people from MDA, its subcontractors Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and Jena-Optronik GmbH, and our own RapidEye specialists, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Paulo E. Cruvinel, Researcher from EMBRAPA – Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation and Executive Coordinator of RIPA – Agribusiness Technological Innovation and Prospecting Network explains what impact the collaboration with RapidEye will have on their research program. “EMBRAPA continuously invests in strategic areas to get transit on knowledge frontiers and new technologies generation. This effort seeks to its institutional architecture in order to achieve more agility and flexibility for better interacting with public and private innovation networks and proper respond to new demands of the agriculture growth. With RapidEye being fully operational, we can better support Government needs, implementing projects related to agrometeorologic risk management and to monitor the environmental dimensions of the sustainability in tropical agriculture.”
