The German Space Agency DLR and EADS Astrium will collaborate on a new radar imagery satellite that will help map the Earth, the organizations announced May 17.

The spacecraft, dubbed Tandem-X, is scheduled for launch in 2009, will work in tandem with TerraSAR-X to form a high-precision radar interferometer. The combination will be to measure the Earth’s land surface, an area of about 150 million square kilometers, within a period of 30 months, DLR said.

Tandem-X will be developed for a cost of about 85 million euros under a public-private partnership between EADS Astrium and DLR. DLR will provide about 56 million euros, while EADS Astrium will contribute 26 million euros. Offering flight opportunities for secondary payloads will finance the remaining 3 million euros of the project.

Infoterra GmbH, a subsidiary of EADS Astrium, will manage the scientific data.