CatSat Captures a Full Orbit

A few weeks ago, using the newly developed capability to capture long sequences of images, CatSat recorded images spanning the duration of an entire orbit through its metrology cameras. This sequence of images, 88 in total covering 93 minutes, begins with the spacecraft over the Pacific Ocean looking at clouds over the water's surface. The images then move through the Northern Ice Caps into Earth's shadow, where variations in the spacecraft's pointing allow sunlight to create lens flares, then out of Earth's shadow over Antarctica and back over the Pacific. Image sequences like these allow the CatSat team, and the public, to feel as though we are flying alongside the spacecraft as it journeys around the Earth.