Lemur-2 72-73

Launch data: Designation  18010 (see table) Launch date  21 Jan 2018 - 01:43 UT Launch site  OnS, LC-1 Launch vehicle  Electron Mission  Earth observ., traffic monitoring

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• SpireGlobal Lemur-2 satellites with ship tracking and GNSS-RO meteorology payloads.

Mission details:

• Lemur-2 is the initial constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites built by Spire.
• The Lemur-2 satellites carry two payloads: STRATOS GPS radio occultation payload and the SENSE AIS payload.
• The SENSE payload enables tracking ships worldwide by receiving their AIS signals. Spire satellites, which orbit close to Earth's atmosphere, listen for GPS satellite signals - which are impacted as they pass through Earth′s atmosphere. Using a process called GPS radio occultation, Spire measures the change in GPS signal readings to calculate very precise profiles for temperature, pressure, and humidity here on Earth.
• Spire announced a sencond generation series to be launched from 2018 onwards, which will also feature ADS-B payloads to track airplanes.
• It is unknown, how many Lemur-2 satellites in total will be launched. The total number of Lemur satellites will be around 100, but these will be incremental updated and may feature different sensors.

External links:

• Satellite tracking: Real time satellite tracking