| Mission type | Maritime tracking |
|---|---|
| Operator |  European Space Agency  Luxspace  exactEarth |
| COSPAR ID | 2020-061B |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 3 September 2020 |
| Rocket | Vega flight VV16 |
| Launch site | Guiana Space Centre |
| End of mission | |
| Decay date | 3 March 2025 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Sun-synchronous |
| Altitude | 515 km |
ESAIL was a small satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in partnership with LuxSpace and ExactEarth. [1] [2] [3] Its objective was worldwide tracking of ships using their automatic identification systems (AIS) [4] [5] [6] for fisheries monitoring, fleet management, environmental protection, and security monitoring. [7] [8] [9] The satellite was launched in September 2020 on the Vega flight VV16 from Guiana Space Centre. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] In a record-breaking technology demonstration, the satellite managed to process more than 2,000,000 messages from 70,000 different ships in a single day, representing a 15% to 20% improvement over previous satellites. [15] [16] [17]
