Guildford-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) (www.sstl.co.uk) recently celebrated the successful launch of its Carbonite-2 Earth Observation technology demonstration satellite.

This was launched along with the Telesat LEO Phase 1 communications satellite — an important milestone in Telesat’s plans to deploy a global low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation that will revolutionise broadband communications around the world.

These two small SSTL satellites were launched into a sun-synchronous orbit on board the PSLV launch vehicle from the Satash Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. After their separation from the launch vehicle, SSTL confirmed that contact was made with both satellites and all initial system checks were successful.

Sir Martin Sweeting, executive chairman of SSTL, said: “This launch marks the start of two new pioneering missions: a technology demonstration for Carbonite-2 and the initial deployment of Telesat’s global LEO constellation.

“I am particularly pleased that our space technology expertise will be advancing new applications in both high-throughput broadband and low cost ‘video from orbit’.

“I would like to congratulate Telesat and also thank the Indian Space Research Organisation for another successful launch.”

Under a contract announced in November, SSTL will supply British company Earth-i with Carbonite-2 data in preparation for a constellation of five satellites.

The first satellite in the series was launched in 2015, and it achieved full mission success by demonstrating the concept of a low-cost COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) ‘video from orbit’ solution.

The Carbonite-2 satellite features enhanced avionics and other improvements, including a full-colour HD video camera.