Tasking order

A tasking order represents a single data acquisition request that will take place in the future. The order defines the tasking parameters but also includes information about the current status of the request.

Parameters

When creating a tasking order, the available parameters depend on the tasking product. These are defined below.

Parameter name	Description
Geometry	Your location of interest defined as a point.
Date	The closed date-time interval of the tasking order request. Required to be at least two weeks in the web app.
Off-nadir angle	The range of angles from the sensor between the nadir and the scene centre. Measured in degrees. Values are between 0 and 45 degrees.
Imaging mode	The mode of data capture - imaging during an astronomical day, night or both.
Cloud coverage	The maximum acceptable percentage of the scene which is obscured by cloud.

Standard vs Assured tasking orders

SatVu currently offers two tasking products:

• Standard tasking allows you to define the full set of tasking parameters. These orders are added to the satellite plan at a nominal priority level. Standard tasking supports both one-off orders and recurring order series.
• Assured tasking allows you to select a specific pass of the satellite over your target area of interest. This has the highest priority in the satellite tasking system, but does not allow you to specify various parameters. These parameters will be pre-defined based on your selected pass. On the API level, you must provide a signature - a unique identification of the pass.

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Please note, for assured tasking we will always guarantee delivery of the image. By placing an Assured tasking order, you accept the risks related to image quality. There is no guarantee all parameters will be met, and cloud cover, in particular, cannot be controlled.

The parameters you are able to define for each product are outlined below:

Parameter	Standard Tasking	Assured Tasking
Location	User Defined	User Defined
Priority	Standard	Highest
Date	User Defined Range	User Selected
Off-Nadir Angle	User Defined (0-45 degrees)	Based on selected pass
Imaging Mode	User Defined (Day / Night)	Based on selected pass
Allowable Cloud Cover	User Defined (25 - 100%)	100%
Delivery	Only when order parameters are fulfilled	Guaranteed

Recurring orders and series

Standard tasking orders can be placed as a recurring series. This gives you a simple way to schedule multiple standard tasking orders at once over the same location, each covering a repeating time window.

When you place a recurring order, an order series is created as the parent grouping for all of the individual orders within it. Each occurrence in the series is a fully independent standard tasking order with its own order ID, status and delivery. The series provides a single managed view of all those orders together.

The key parameters that define a series are:

Parameter	Description
Frequency	The interval between the start of successive tasking windows, expressed as a number of days, weeks or months
Number of tasking windows	The total number of tasking windows to create in the series

The first order uses the tasking window you specify when placing the order. Each subsequent order opens a window of the same length, shifted forward by one recurrence period. The number of orders defines how many tasking windows are created, not how many images are guaranteed to be delivered.

All orders in a series share the same location, tasking parameters and add-on settings.

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Feasibility checks are not available for recurring orders. Because individual windows may be scheduled far into the future, feasibility cannot be reliably assessed at the time of ordering.

The full credit for all orders is reserved from your credit limit when the series is placed. Credit for each individual order is redeemed when that order is fulfilled. If an order is not captured and expires, the reserved credit for that window is returned to your credit limit.

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Whilst we endeavour to capture your order at the earliest possible opportunity, there is no enforced minimum gap between captures across acquisition windows. If a capture happens near the end of one window and again near the start of the next, two images may be delivered in close succession even with a longer recurrence period.

Each series has a status, derived from the individual tasking orders within it. While at least one order still has a tasking window in the future, the series status is In progress. Once every orders's tasking window has passed, the series status becomes Complete.

For a step-by-step guide to placing a recurring order, see the Recurring Tasking Tutorial.

Order Add ons

When placing a tasking order, you can include optional Addons. These provide additional flexibility for how your data is licensed and shared.

Product Licence

When purchasing data through the SatVu Platform, the Licence level associated with the order must be selected. Your contract defines the licence levels available to you, along with the associated price uplift for each licence level.

Catalog withholds

While placing a tasking order, you can choose whether to withhold data from being published into the SatVu catalog. While an image is withheld from the catalog, it is not visible to any users outside of the contract that placed the tasking order

The contract defines the withhold options for tasking data ordering. Each option represents a duration for which the image is withheld and has an associated label and the price uplift value. More information about finding this information for the web app and API users is described under Contract Restrictions.

Catalog withholding starts after the image has been processed, and the order has been fulfilled. At this point, this image is only visible to a user of a contract that was used to place an order. This image will be available in the Orders, and also visible in the Catalog search results.

After the selected withholding timeframe ends, the image becomes visible to everyone who browses catalog and has access to this geographical area.

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Please note, that there might be an option to permanently remove the image from the catalog. If enabled, the image will never be seen by users of other contracts.

Order and task statuses

You can get information on where each order or task is in its lifecycle through its status.

Order statuses

You can easily track the progress of a tasking order through the platform. Currently, it supports the following statuses:

Order status	Description
staged	The order has been transmitted to the satellite order management system.
in progress	The order has been added to the satellite data collection plan.
fulfilled	The order has been successfully fulfilled.
failed	The order could not have been added to the satellite order management system. We recommend creating a new one or communicating with the customer success team.
cancelled	The order has been successfully cancelled on the user’s request.
expired	The order end time has passed, and no valid data has been delivered.

Task statuses

Each order can have multiple tasks assigned to it. For example, if a task does not fulfil an order due to cloud cover constraints, a new task will be planned and assigned to the order. The platform supports the following task statuses:

Task status	Description
in progress	The task has been added to the mission planning system is attempting to capture.
processing	The task has been downlinked and the image is being processed.
fulfilled	The task has fulfilled the order.
not fulfilled	The task has completed, however it does not fulfil the order.
failed	An error has occurred with the task.

Viewing order and task statuses

On the Web app, you can see the full history of a tasking order in the Acquisitions tab within the order details.

1. Open the Orders page
2. Click on your order to open the Order Details side panel
3. Click on the history tab
4. Expand the Order history to display more details

The tab also displays a list of all of the tasks that have been assigned to the order, and their current status.

Order status history and tasks assigned to each order can also be seen in the Python SDK and the RESTful API.

Order delivery

Tasking data delivery happens after data has been received, transferred, and processed. At the delivery stage, SatVu checks if the data matches the parameters you provided.

SatVu tasking only supports targeting of point geometry. In order to ensure that a substantial area around the provided point geometry is captured, we perform an additional validation step on the captured image. An order is only fulfilled if a circle with a 1km radius around the target point is fully within the scene.

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Please note the SatVu scene size is approximately 4.5 x 3.5 km at Nadir.

This circle is displayed within the web app when the target point is provided

Modifying an individual order

Various aspects of a tasking order can be modified after the point at which the order has been placed. The point at which the fields can be modified depend on the status of the order:

• Order name can be modified at any point.
• Order properties that impact the price of an order (withhold and licence level) can be modified in the staged or in progress statuses.
• For Standard tasking orders, tasking parameters (geometry, tasking window, day/night, cloud cover and off nadir angle) can only be modified in the staged status.
• For Assured tasking orders, tasking parameters cannot be modified. To modify an assured order, we recommend that you cancel the order and place a new assured order.

To modify the Order properties, click on a specific order within your Orders page to open the Order details side panel. From here, if the order is in the staged or in progress status, you will be able to modify the order properties by clicking on the "Modify Order Details" button in the side panel.

After making any changes you will see an estimate of the price impact displayed before confirming any modifications.

To modify the Tasking parameters, click on a specific order within your Orders page to open the Order details side panel. From here, click into the Image tab to open the image details. From here, if the order is in the staged status, you will be able to modify the order properties by clicking on the "Modify Tasking parameters" button in the side panel.

After making any changes to the tasking parameters, you will be required to re-validate feasibility based on the new parameters. If the modified order is feasible, you will be able to confirm changes and modify the order

Cancelling a tasking order

SatVu platform enables order cancellation via the web app, Python SDK or the RESTful API. Cancellation is possible when the order has the status staged and is free of charge. Once the order is cancelled, you will not be invoiced for this order.

Modifying or cancelling a recurring series

A recurring order series can be modified while it is active. Any changes apply to future orders only — orders that have already been created within the series are not affected. The series name can be updated at any time, while other parameters such as the recurrence frequency and order count can only be changed while the series remains active.

Cancellation applies to all future orders at once. Any orders in the series that have already been fulfilled are not affected, and any reserved credit for unfulfilled future orders is returned to your credit limit upon cancellation.