The TerraSAR-X mission status

TSX, an advanced synthetic aperture radar satellite, launched on June 15 ^th 2007 and the almost identically rebuild TDX satellite, launched on June 21 ^th 2010 serve two challenging radar missions. First: The TerraSAR-X mission, providing high quality SAR data for scientific and commercial purposes, covering a large variation of SAR modes from a high resolution staring spotlight mode with 1 m resolution to large area wide ScanSAR mode offering up to 260 km swath width. Second: The TanDEM-X mission, generating a global digital elevation model (DEM). This paper focuses on the TerraSAR-X mission after 8 years in space, the status of the both spacecraft, as well as the ground segment activities.