The potential for Earth observation from space was recognised more than 60 years ago, when the first satellites were launched. The United States started the secret CORONA programme in 1959: a series of spy satellites whose resolution was initially 7.5m, and from 1963, 1.8m. The satellites took analogue black-and-white images, which were sent to the Earth's surface as photo rolls with parachutes.
60 Years later, satellites are the most normal thing in the world. The CORONA satellite has been succeeded by platforms with multispectral and even hyperspectral sensors, and data is beamed down by many terabytes at a time. With this, the possibilities have also become infinitely greater.
NEO has been an innovative player in Earth observation for 25 years, contributing to innovations in monitoring and mutation detection.
Speaking of mutations, the past 60 years have seen a lot of changes not only on the technical front. The attached images show some large-scale changes in the Netherlands, comparing a coloured CORONA image of 1961 with an image of 2021. CORONA was a state-of-the-art secret project in 1961, but technologically we are much further ahead now. 2022 will be a year in which even more technological progress will be made, and in which we will hopefully be able to put corona behind us once again.
