11.08.2007
TopSat in Disasters Charter
TopSat, the "dorm-fridge-size" observation satellite designed and built by a consortium of British firms to deliver low cost, high resolution images of Earth -- and which proved cool enough to win Popular Science's 2006 Aviation and Space Grand Award -- will be included in the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters.Here is the announcement.
The Disasters Charter, as we know, is "a joint initiative by global space agency members to provide emergency response satellite data free of charge to rescue authorities responding to major natural or man-made disasters anywhere in the world."
Since Nov. 1, 2000, the Charter has been activated more than 100 times (last total I read was 140), including for US disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Southern California fires. The list of the Charter's recent activations reads like a timeline of human catastrophe.
Lots more on the Charter here.
Thanks for your help, TopSat.
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IMAGE: TopSat, launched on a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia into a polar low orbit on Oct. 27, 2005 and declared operational in Dec. 2005.
