SPOT was the French government-sponsored civil earth observation program, with support from Belgium and Sweden. A single SPOT satellite provided complete coverage of the Earth every 26 days. Image products from SPOT were handled by a commercial entity, SPOT-Image Corp.

The spacecraft was 3-Axis stabilized to 0.1 deg using momentum wheels. A single solar array generated 1000 W (BOL) power. Downlink at 8 GHz and 2 x 25 Mbps. A hydrazine propulsion system provided orbit maintenance.

The HRV (High Resolution Visible) imaging payload provided 20 meter resolution multispectral imagery and 10 meter panchromatic imagery using push-broom sensors. HRV covered the following spectral bands: 0.5 - 0.59 µ m, 0.61 - 0.68 µ m, 0.79 - 0.89 µm; in addition to the panchromatic band: 0.51 - 0.73 µ m. The field of view was 4.13 deg in both modes (multispectral and panchromatic) with 3000 pixels per multispectral line and 6000 pixels per panchromatic line. The observed strip was 60 km wide (swath width). On-board recorder capacity was 22 minutes for both modes. The HRV mass was 250 kg. The spacecraft carried two identical HRVs to provide a total of 117 km swath (with 3 km overlap).

Design Life: 2 years. Typical orbit: 832 km, sun-synchronous, repeating every 26 days. Length: 3.50 m (11.40 ft). Maximum Diameter: 2.00 m (6.50 ft). Span: 15.60 m (51.10 ft). Mass: 1,869 kg (4,120 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Ariane 1, Ariane 4.

• 1986 February 22 - SPOT 1 - Program: SPOT. Launch Site: Kourou. Launch Vehicle: Ariane 1. Mass: 1,830 kg (4,030 lb). Perigee: 824 km (512 mi). Apogee: 826 km (513 mi). Inclination: 98.70 deg. Period: 101.40 min.

  Remote sensing satellite. Registration 1986-1.B

• 1990 January 22 - SPOT 2 - Program: SPOT. Launch Site: Kourou. Launch Vehicle: Ariane 4. Mass: 1,870 kg (4,120 lb). Perigee: 825 km (512 mi). Apogee: 826 km (513 mi). Inclination: 98.70 deg. Period: 101.40 min.

  Remote sensing. Earth observation satellite. Registration 1990-1-B.

• 1993 September 26 - SPOT 3 - Program: SPOT. Launch Site: Kourou. Launch Vehicle: Ariane 4. Mass: 1,907 kg (4,204 lb). Perigee: 821 km (510 mi). Apogee: 823 km (511 mi). Inclination: 98.70 deg. Period: 101.30 min.

  Remote sensing.

• USAF Satellite Database, USAF Institute of Technology, 1995. Accessed at: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited since Sputnik. Accessed at: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html.

• JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Accessed at: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• Krebs, Gunter, Gunter's Space Page, University of Frankfurt, 1996. Accessed at: http://www.skyrocket.de/space.