RADARSAT-1 & SURFSAT

RADARSAT-1 is Canada's first commercial Earth observation satellite. It utilized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to obtain images of the Earth's surface to manage natural resources and monitor global climate change.

Surfsat 1 (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Satellite 1), a student-built satellite, consists of two aluminum rectangles each about the size of a bread box. The JPL spacecraft, funded by NASA at a cost of $3M, was successfully launched 4 November 1995 on a Delta-7920-10 launch vehicle. Surfsat-1 went as a secondary payload on the Canadian Radarsat 1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.