Italy’s IRIDE Satellite Delivers Its First High-Res Images from Space

31st Mar 2025

On 28 March 2025, a presentation of the first image from IRIDE at the ESA-ESRIN in Italy showed off its imaging abilities from space. This satellite’s multispectral optical instrument captured an image of the Italian peninsula at a rather high resolution.

IRIDE To Improve Italy’s Earth Observation Services

IRIDE first image over Rome — This image shows the centre of the city of Rome featuring the Tiber river, the Olympic stadium, the Vittoria neighbourhood, the famous dome and colonnades of Saint Peter’s basilica and the star-shaped gardens of Castel Sant’Angelo. Credit: IRIDE

Earth observation services are crucial to various societies globally, and IRIDE is stepping up in Italy. On 14 January 2025, the first IRIDE satellite got into orbit in space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

This first satellite, known as the Pathfinder Hawk, features a multispectral optical instrument which can take images at a resolution of 2.66 metres. At this resolution, the new satellite from Italy is higher than the resolution that is currently available on satellites that are at the disposal of the Italian government.

The image of Italy’s peninsula was captured by IRIDE on 5 March 2025 as it passed over Fano on the Adriatic coast. The satellite’s view extended across the central Apennine ridge near Rome, continuing 20 km southward toward Ostia along the Lazio coastline.

The image presented in the ESA-ESRIN facility in Italy on 28 March 2025 is the first of its kind. It will help provide Italy with information regarding services that cover the environment, emergency, and security.

More Images Expected As IRIDE Satellite Constellation Expands

ESA’s Head of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli said that the “first images show the extraordinary potential of IRIDE, made possible thanks to the skills and motivation of the teams from ESA, ASI and Italian industry.” She also congratulated the firms that worked on the development of Pathfinder Hawk and thanked the ESA and ASI for collaborating on the project.

Teodoro Valente, president of ASI expressed determination to continue work on the IRIDE project “to ensure that this constellation reaches its full operational capacity.” We might start to see the effects of this work over the course of the coming months as more satellites are launch to join the constellation.