SPOT 7, the Earth-observation satellite designed and built by Airbus Defence and Space, has had its ownership transferred from Airbus Defence and Space, to Azercosmos (the main space agency of Azerbiajan) as part of a cooperation agreement covering the use of SPOT 6 and 7. SPOT 7 is now to be known as Azersky and was launched by an India PSLV rocket on 30 June 2014. The satellite is expected to have a lifespan of at least 12 years.
With the joined and integrated operation of SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 the acquisition capacity is boosted to six million square kilometres per day and will provide imagery with a resolution of up to 1.5m.The Airbus Defence and Space-Azercosmos agreement also allows access to imagery acquired from the higher resolution Pléiades 1A and 1B satellites.
