# Pléiades Neo 3
*missions*

## Specifications
- **operator**: airbus-ds
- **actual launch**: 2021-04-29
- **planned decommission**: 2031-04-30
- **current status**: operational
- **orbit type**: Sun-synchronous LEO, 620 km
- **swath km**: 14
- **revisit days**: 1
- **tasking supported**: true
- **archive depth years**: 5
- **current geographic priority**: Commercial global very-high-resolution optical tasking and archive imagery for site monitoring, crisis response, infrastructure, agriculture, maritime, oil and gas, finance, defence and security.
- **launch vehicle**: arianespace-vega
- **platform**: pleiades-neo-platform
- **entity type**: mission
- **last verified date**: 2026-06-14
- **verified by**: operator
- **claim status**: unclaimed
- **provider**: airbus-ds
- **attributes**: {"operator":"airbus-ds","actual_launch":"2021-04-29","planned_decommission":"2031-04-30","current_status":"operational","orbit_type":"Sun-synchronous LEO, 620 km","swath_km":14,"revisit_days":1,"tasking_supported":true,"archive_depth_years":5,"current_geographic_priority":"Commercial global very-high-resolution optical tasking and archive imagery for site monitoring, crisis response, infrastructure, agriculture, maritime, oil and gas, finance, defence and security.","launch_vehicle":"arianespace-vega","platform":"pleiades-neo-platform"}

## Editorial
Pleiades Neo 3 is a commercial very-high-resolution optical satellite operated by Airbus Defence and Space, launched on 29 April 2021 into a sun-synchronous orbit at 620 km.[^airbus-pleiades-neo-story][^ceos-pleiades-neo-3] The satellite carries the Pleiades Neo imager, delivering 0.3 m standard ortho products across a 14 km swath in panchromatic and six-band multispectral modes.[^copernicus-pleiadesneo][^usgs-pleiades-neo-characterization] Pleiades Neo 3 and Pleiades Neo 4, launched in August 2021, form the currently operating pair within the constellation; Pleiades Neo 5 and 6 did not reach orbit following the December 2022 Vega-C launch failure.[^airbus-pleiades-neo-story][^usgs-pleiades-neo-characterization] With same-orbit phasing across the pair, the service achieves daily revisit for tasked areas.[^copernicus-pleiadesneo] Tasking is commercially available through OneAtlas; a five-year archive exists as of 2026. Applications include urban change monitoring, transport infrastructure inspection, disaster response, land-cover change analysis, agriculture monitoring, maritime surveillance, and defence and intelligence tasking. CEOS records a planned decommission around April 2031.[^ceos-pleiades-neo-3]

## Compositional position
- Pléiades Neo 3 --[mission_payloads]--> pleiades-neo-imager (products)
- Pléiades Neo 3 --[related-topic]--> urban-change (topics)
- Pléiades Neo 3 --[related-topic]--> transport-infrastructure (topics)
- Pléiades Neo 3 --[related-topic]--> disaster-damage-assessment (topics)
- Pléiades Neo 3 --[related-topic]--> land-cover-change (topics)

## Sources
- [airbus-pleiades-neo-story] | Airbus, Pléiades Neo launch and commercial availability timeline | https://space-solutions.airbus.com/resources/news/various/pleiades-neo-story/ | tier=operator-press | accessed=2026-06-14
- [copernicus-pleiadesneo] | Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, Pléiades Neo | https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/explore-data/data-collections/copernicus-contributing-missions/missions/pleiadesneo | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14
- [usgs-pleiades-neo-characterization] | USGS, System characterization report on the Pléiades Neo Imager | https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20211030P | tier=agency-doc | accessed=2026-06-14 | published=2023-09-01
- [ceos-pleiades-neo-3] | CEOS Database, Pléiades Neo 3 mission summary | https://database.eohandbook.com/database/missionsummary.aspx?missionID=999 | tier=community | accessed=2026-06-14

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/missions/pleiades-neo-3
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)