TopSat is an Earth observation satellite that was launched on October 27, 2005 alongside the Beijing-1 Disaster Monitoring Constellation

Disaster Monitoring Constellation

The Disaster Monitoring Constellation consists of a number of remote sensing satellites constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and operated for the Algerian, Nigerian, Turkish, British and Chinese governments by DMC International Imaging...

 satellite by a Cosmos rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome

Plesetsk Cosmodrome

Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport, located in Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk.-Overview:...

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. TopSat carries out imaging with a ground resolution of 2.5m. Much smaller and cheaper than other imaging satellites of similar high resolution, TopSat has been used to demonstrate the feasibility of providing images on demand to portable groundstations, such as might be deployed by the military or by disaster relief organisations.

TopSat was built in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a spin-off company of the University of Surrey, now fully owned by EADS Astrium, that builds and operates small satellites. Its satellites began as amateur radio satellites known by the UoSAT name or by an OSCAR designation...

, QinetiQ

QinetiQ

Qinetiq is a British global defence technology company, formed from the greater part of the former UK government agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency , when it was split up in June 2001...

 and The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council . It is located on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus at Chilton near Didcot in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom...

 under the British National Space Centre

British National Space Centre

The British National Space Centre was a British government body that coordinated civil space activities for the UK. It was replaced on 1 April 2010 by the UK Space Agency.-Structure:...

 Mosaic programme. The engineering model of TopSat now lives in the space gallery of London's Science Museum

Science museum

A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...

.

TopSat won the 2006 Popular Science

Popular Science

Popular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...

"Best of What's New" Grand Award in the Aviation and Space category.

External links

• New era of low-cost Earth observation dawns as first images received from TopSat, QinetiQ press release, 19 December 2005.
• Topsat project