site.btaGreece Launches Six New Microsatellites for Civil Protection, Environmental Monitoring

Greece has launched six new microsatellites, bringing the country's total number of satellites in orbit to 17, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a Facebook post on Monday. The new satellites will be used in the fields of civil protection and climate resilience, Mitsotakis said, adding that this places the country "on the front line" of European space technology.

The national microsatellite programme, with a total value of about EUR 200 million, is funded under the Greece 2.0 National Recovery and Resilience Plan and is being implemented in cooperation with the European Space Agency, Mitsotakis said. The Prime Minister also announced that European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius is arriving in the country to discuss the European Union Governmental Satellite Communications programme.

According to ANA-MPA, the new thermal satellites were successfully launched into orbit on Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. They will be used to detect and track forest fires.

The data will be transmitted to a centralized platform that collects and processes satellite information for use by government agencies, creating a unified operational system for public authorities, ANA-MPA added.

In addition to monitoring forest fires, the satellites will also gather high-precision data on sea surface temperatures, coastal areas and inland water bodies, as well as on the use of agricultural, forest and urbanized land.