Kanopus-V

Kanopus-V (KANOPUS Vulkan) is a Russian operational land-observation satellite programme with multiple flight units, developed by NPO VNIIEM and operated by Roscosmos. The first unit, Kanopus-V1, launched on 22 July 2012; WMO OSCAR lists Kanopus-V3, V4, V5, V6 and Kanopus-V-IK-1 as active through at least 2026. Operational units fly in sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 510 km altitude with a 10:30 ascending equator crossing time and a 5-day revisit cycle.^[1][2]

The sensor payload across the programme includes the MSS multispectral scanner, the PSS panchromatic pushbroom sensor, the MSU-200 wide-field multispectral imager, and the MSU-IK-SR medium-resolution multispectral and thermal imager. Roshydromet serves as an agency for the programme alongside Roscosmos. Application domains include land cover change monitoring, disaster damage assessment, wildfire detection, sea-ice observation, and environmental monitoring.^[3][4][5][6]