The International Archives of the Photogrammetry. Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVIL Part Bl. Beiiing 2008 
Figure 3. Proba/Chris image of 3 gorges dam China (ESA) 
Figure 4. PROBA 2 under integration at Verhaert Space 
1.2 Topsat 1 
On 27th October 2005, TopSat was successfully launched. It 
has since been producing high quality imagery to satisfy a 
range of user requests. 
The purpose of the programme is primarily to demonstrate the 
ability to build and operate a low cost optical satellite capable 
of generating high quality imagery. 
Figure 6. Image of Marseille, France 
The satellite produces panchromatic imagery (17x17km) with a 
spatial resolution of 2.8m, and multi-spectral imagery 
(12x18km) with 5.6m resolution. Imagery is routinely 
downloaded to QinetiQ’s ground station at West Freugh, 
Scotland, where it is forwarded to the Payload Operations 
Centre in Famborough for processing and dissemination to 
users. 
Figure 7. The West Freugh ground station 
Figure 5. TopSat spacecraft platform 
(outer panels removed for clarity) 
Figure 8. The RAPIDS mobile ground station