DigitalGlobe in Colorado Launches New "Spy" Satellite

Meeting the need for increased capacity in high-resolution Earth imaging from space, DigitalGlobe just announced the successful launch of their second imaging satellite, WorldView-1, to be soon followed by their third, WorldView-2, next year.

Their first satellite, QuickBird, was launched in October 2001. The booming commercial and government requirements for GIS (geographic information system) purposes as well as capturing specific images (such as widespread fires or airport configurations) as well as intelligence and other uses means DigitalGlobe's satellite capabilities are in high demand.

Based in Longmont, Colorado, and working in association with nearby Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. and ITT Corporation, DigitalGlobe press release concerning the successful launch on September 18 says that they provide the "world's highest resolution commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information products," with color photographs of the earth down to a half-meter resolution, and covering as much as 290,000 square miles per day. Customers who require rapid updates to detect changes or keep maps up to date can take advantage of an "average revisit time" of 1.7 days, rather than static images from a library.

While many Internet users are familiar with satellite imaging products such as those from DigitalGlobe from their use of Google Earth and similar tools, there are many other uses for high resolution color images, including research and data interpretation, real estate marketing, mapping, aviation and observation of remote areas. DigitalGlobe's current satellite, QuickBird, orbits at an altitude of 450 kilometers, and has a 60 centimeter resolution. With multiple satellites in orbit, DigitalGlobe says that they will use new software capabilities to coordinate data collection among the satellites, providing even more dynamic data collection capabilities.

WorldView-1 was launched, according to DigitalGlobe, "at approximately 11:35 AM PDT on a Boeing Delta II 7920 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA" They note that the launch is the 75^th consecutive successful launch of a Delta II rocket. Signals are already being received from the satellite since shortly after it separated from its launch vehicle and initialized its onboard processors. It is now, in late September, being checked-out and calibrated, and new images should begin flowing, says DigitalGlobe, by mid-October. Financing of the satellite was partially provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) which will receive imagery from the satellite, the majority of which will be available through DigitalGlobe's ImageLibrary.

Colorado's "space industry" also includes research projects performed by Air Force Academy students and researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as GPS (global positioning system) coordination from near Colorado Springs and many commercial satellite-based businesses, such as EchoStar Communications Corporation, provider of Dish Network satellite television service.

"DigitalGlobe Successfully Launches Worldview-1," http://media.digitalglobe.com/index.php?s=press_release_popup&item=135
http://www.digitalglobe.com/press/factsheet_press.html