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RADARSAT Operations

Each day, mission planners in Satellite Operations at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) prioritize client orders that come in from five RADARSAT-1 order desks and develop plans for data acquisition. From these, the planners generate command files and transmit them to the satellite's mission control facility at CSA. 

The mission control engineers and controllers check the command files and prepare them to be sent up to RADARSAT-1 during the morning and evening passes. Uplinks are sent from RADARSAT antennas at CSA headquarters in Longueuil, Quebec, or in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. These command files begin to execute defined sequences the next imaging day.

CSA Mission Control staff send commands to RADARSAT-1 and closely monitor the health and safety of the satellite, as they fill customer orders from nearly 60 countries.