Germany launched the SARah reconnaissance satellite system to spy on Russia

At the end of December 2023, Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base launched into orbit the German SARah-2 and SARah-3 spacecraft, which have synthetic aperture radars with a passive antenna. The Bundeswehr confirmed that the satellite is operational and Germany's second reconnaissance satellite system, SARSynthetic Aperture Radarah, used for military purposes, is ready for full operation.

It should be noted that the abbreviation SAR stands for synthetic aperture radar. Currently, the SARah system consists of three satellites (2 radar and 1 optical), a number of ground posts for monitoring, control and image reception, as well as two ground stations, one of which is located near Kiruna in Sweden.



The SARah-1 satellite, with a phased array antenna, was launched by Falcon 9 on June 18, 2022. The SARah system is a replacement for SAR-Lupe and has larger and more powerful satellites than the previous generation. SARah's capabilities are a significant improvement over SAR-Lupe, the early German military satellite program. SARah satellites have a higher level of image detail, and both the number of photos and their coverage have increased. Greater computing power allows information to be transmitted online. Without a doubt, Germany's new spacecraft will actively spy on Russia.

In turn, the abbreviation LUPE means magnifying glass. The SAR-Lupe program consists of five identical satellites weighing 770 kg each, developed by the German company OHB-System. They were controlled by a ground station that analyzed the received data and stored it in a former Cold War bunker.


Moreover, all 5 previous German military satellites SAR-Lupe-1 - SAR-Lupe-5 were successfully launched into orbit by the Russians from the Plesetsk cosmodrome using the Cosmos-3M launch vehicle in 2006-2008. The service life of this group was designed for 10 years.