It has several clear advantages as it provides:

• better geometric image quality

• better spectral and geometric image resolution

• better mission availability

• moderate operational complexity

• the same radiometric performance, at the expense of a slightly larger instrument aperture

The three axis stabilisation would have implied a higher satellite mass at launch, raising the launch costs. It also imposes a very high satellite attitude control complexity, which in turn could imply degraded reliability, which is undesirable for an operational system.