HRS camera: a development and in-orbit success

Embarked on-board SPOT5, the French Earth Observation Satellite, the High Resolution Stereoscopic (HRS) camera, dedicated to simultaneous acquisition of stereo pairs with 60 km x 120 km wide swath and 10 m spatial resolution create Digital Elevation Models (DEM) with 10 m elevation accuracy. After on year inorbit, the instrument exhibits excellent performances. Mainly built around two dioptric optics arranged with a 40° angle, which optimises the elevation performances, the HRS camera was developed in one shot, direct qualification and validation on flight model. After a description of HRS instrument architecture, design and performances, this paper describes its development and on-ground verification results. Then, the elevation in-orbit accuracy performances and the DEM end-products are presented.