missions

COSMO-SkyMed

COSMO-SkyMed is an ASI first-generation four-satellite X-band SAR constellation for dual-use civil and governmental Earth observation.^[1]^[2] The satellites fly a sun-synchronous dawn-dusk orbit providing up to 12-hour revisit for the four-spacecraft constellation.^[3] Each spacecraft carries the SAR-2000 X-band instrument operating at 9.60 GHz, with resolution ranging from 1 to 100 m and swath from 10 to 200 km by acquisition mode.^[4] Thales Alenia Space manufactured the radar satellites and end-to-end system; Telespazio handles ground segment logistics and operations; e-GEOS distributes data commercially.^[1] The system supports emergency management, disaster monitoring, and the systematic MapItaly national acquisition programme, with radar-backscatter and interferometric deformation workflows demonstrated across the first-generation constellation.^[1]^[3] WMO tracks the first-generation programme lifetime through 2026; per-satellite retirement dates beyond that period were not confirmed in the sources consulted.^[3]

Full specification

All fields

current status	Operational
operator	Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
launch vehicle	Delta II
Launched	2007-06-07
orbit type	Sun-synchronous dawn-dusk orbit around 06:00 local time; first-generation CSK programme satellites flown in a phased four-satellite constellation
swath km	200
revisit days	0.5
tasking supported	Yes
current geographic priority	Dual-use civil and governmental SAR observation, emergency management, disaster monitoring and systematic MapItaly acquisitions.

Supply chain position

carries instrument SAR-2000

operated by Agenzia Spaziale Italiana

launched on Delta II

SAR backscatter imaging → demonstrated SAR-2000

InSAR - surface deformation → demonstrated SAR-2000

Polarimetric SAR - target decomposition → capable SAR-2000

Sources

[1]COSMO-SkyMed, Italian Space Agencyagency doc2026-06-14
[2]COSMO-SkyMed Mission and Products Description, ASIagency doc2026-06-14
[3]COSMO-SkyMed programme, WMO OSCARthird party2026-06-14
[4]SAR-2000, WMO OSCAR instrument recordthird party2026-06-14

Cite https://eo-atlas.org/missions/cosmo-skymed Markdown twin → Field definitions → Suggest a correction →

How to cite this page

Plain text

COSMO-SkyMed. EO-Atlas, SpectraWorks B.V. https://eo-atlas.org/missions/cosmo-skymed (CC BY 4.0)

BibTeX

@misc{eoatlas:missions:cosmo-skymed,
  title = {COSMO-SkyMed},
  author = {{EO-Atlas}},
  publisher = {SpectraWorks B.V.},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
  url = {https://eo-atlas.org/missions/cosmo-skymed}
}