Two monitoring satellites launched

Two satellites were sent into space to improve the world’s only space-based disaster monitoring system, the British company that makes the satellites said.

Both satellites were expected to enhance the monitoring program, which provides Earth observation imagery for a variety of commercial and environmental applications in addition to disasters, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited said in a news release Thursday.

These latest two satellites will advance the capability of the DMC … to provide affordable Earth observation space assets to all, and continue to demonstrate the commercial value of space, SSTL Chairman Martin Sweeting said.

The satellites were launched on board a Dnepr rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday.

SSTL, based in Guildford, launched 34 satellites since 1981.