Albedo's Clarity-1 satellite, weighing 530 kg, is scheduled to launch aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 on the Transporter-13 mission. This satellite aims to transition from its delivery orbit of 500-600 km to an operational orbit at 274 km, facing challenges typical of Very Low Earth Orbits (VLEO). Despite superior image quality and potential for debris removal, issues such as atomic oxygen, plasma eddies, and precise image capture complicate operations. Albedo recently secured a $12 million contract to provide VLEO-specific data for military missions, underlining its strategic significance.
The hardest part is pointing and attitude control, because that's already hard in LEO, when you have a big telescope and you're trying to get a high resolution.
Clarity-1 is launching near the peak of the 100-year solar cycle, so this could reduce its active lifetime.
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