Airbus Statement Following Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 Loss

It is a challenging moment for all the Airbus teams who designed, manufactured and prepared the satellites for their launch, as well as those who were ready to operate the full constellation.

Despite this morning launch’s setback, our Pléiades Neo constellation is already delivering at full scale, based on our Pléiades Neo 3 and 4 satellites. Their extremely high image quality, geolocation accuracy and overall operational reactivity have already been recognised by our customers and partners worldwide over the past year. Also, our Pléiades Neo satellite design has clearly proven its performance, and will be a key asset for Airbus on the worldwide export market of Very High-Resolution Earth Observation (EO) systems.

Since their first day in orbit, the Pléiades Neo satellites have worked hand in hand with the rest of the Airbus EO satellite fleet, comprising 10 Very High and High-Resolution satellites. They continue delivering outstanding images at 30 cm resolution, covering over 1 million km² per day, thanks to intra-day revisits and a 14km swath. Highly agile and reactive, offering flexible tasking, the satellites fulfil the most demanding needs, especially important in times of crisis like natural disasters, and for defence and security requirements.

More than ever, customers need to access fresh, reliable and trusted data at very high-resolution, to make informed decisions. With Pléiades Neo offering the best image quality and accuracy to the market, Airbus teams remain fully committed to continue delivering exceedingly high quality EO services and satellite systems to its global customer base.