[11-01-07 – Satellite Today] The third of Germany’s SAR-Lupe satellites has been launched from the Plesetsk space center by a Russian Cosmos-3M rocket.
    The third of five satellites in the German observation system is under control by the DLR, the German space agency. The ground station of the German Armed Forces in Gelsdorf is tracking the satellite and will assume responsibility for it in about four weeks
    SAR-Lupe provides continuous, high-resolution ground images to the German Ministry of Defence. The SAR-Lupe program, which has a lifetime of 10 years, features a constellation of five identical small satellites plus a ground segment. The satellites will be positioned into three quasi-polar orbital planes at an altitude above 300 miles.
    The remaining two satellites will be launched in intervals of four or five months, with the entire system expected to be fully operational in 2008.