The Final Two Airbus Pléiades Neo Satellites Arrive in Kourou for Launch

Pleiades Neo 5 satellite is packed in Toulouse before for its flight to Kourou

The last batch of the Airbus-built, owned and operated Pléiades Neo satellites has arrived at the European Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, following a transatlantic flight from Toulouse, France, where most of the manufacturing steps occurred over the last years.

Scheduled to be launched at the end of November on the first commercial mission of the Vega C European rocket operated by Arianespace, the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites will complete the Airbus 30cm resolution four-satellite constellation.

“We are just one step away from completing this pioneering constellation, which already covers one million km² per day and delivers images at 30cm native resolution,” said François Lombard, Head of Intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space. “With this upcoming launch, we will double our capacity and be able to respond to our customers’ needs even faster, providing the best quality in the market for a wide range of military and commercial applications.”

The Pléiades Neo 3 and 4 satellites were launched in April and August 2021, respectively, and since then they have been collecting imagery easily accessible from Airbus’ OneAtlas digital platform, where customers can task new imagery and have access to archived images and extensive analytics.