France Launches CSO-2 Military Satellite

Arianespace on Tuesday launched the French military’s CSO-2 reconnaissance satellite that will orbit the Earth at a distance of 480km.

The CSO next-generation Earth imaging satellites will replace France's aging Helios 1 and 2 systems. They will be fully deployed by 2022.

CSO-2 (Optical Space Component-2 or Composante Spatiale Optique-2) is the second in a constellation of three identical military observation satellites that will operate in different polar orbits to accomplish two missions: reconnaissance for CSO-1 and CSO-3, and identification for CSO-2.

The 3,562kg satellite built by Airbus launched on December 29 will be joining CSO-1 launched two years ago (800-km orbit). It was launched by a Russia’s Soyuz rocket from Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana in South America.

It (CSO-2) will acquire very-high-resolution day/night, clear-weather imagery in the visible and infrared in a range of viewing modes to serve a broad spectrum of operational requirements, officials with the French space agency CNES, said in a statement.

The defense ministry said CSO-1 placed in an orbit of 800km allows the military to process greater number of targets. CSO-2 positioned in a lower orbit provides better resolution such as locate the presence of weaponry transported by a vehicle in an urban environment. CSO-3 will be at present at a distance of 800km from the Earth to complete the reconnaissance mission. The three satellites are capable of acquiring more than 800 images per day.