DigitalGlobe Successfully Launches Worldview-1

17 September 2007, 4:30pm

18 September 2007 - DigitalGlobe, provider of the world’s highest-resolution commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information products, today announced the successful launch and deployment of WorldView-1, the most agile commercial satellite ever flown. The satellite launched at approximately 11:35 AM PDT on a Boeing Delta II 7920 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA. The launch of WorldView-1 marks 75 consecutive successful launches of a Delta II rocket and the second successful commercial launch for Boeing Launch Services in 2007.

Shortly after the launch, a DigitalGlobe ground station received a downlink signal confirming that the satellite successfully separated from its launch vehicle and had automatically initialized its onboard processors. WorldView-1 is currently undergoing a calibration and check-out period and will deliver imagery soon after. First imagery from WorldView-1 is expected to be available prior to October 18, the six-year anniversary of the launch of QuickBird, DigitalGlobe’s current satellite.

“The successful launch of WorldView-1 represents the hard work of hundreds of DigitalGlobe employees, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, ITT Corporation and dozens of partner organizations,” said Jill Smith, chief executive officer of DigitalGlobe. “The addition of WorldView-1 to our growing constellation of satellites is a testament of our commitment to our customers. We look forward to supplying the growing market with an unprecedented offering of high-resolution geospatial products.”

WorldView-1, built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation with the imaging sensor provided by ITT Corporation, is a high-capacity, panchromatic imaging system featuring half-meter resolution imagery. With an average revisit time of 1.7 days, WorldView-1 is capable of collecting up to 750,000 square kilometers (290,000 square miles) per day of half-meter imagery. Frequent revisits will increase image collection opportunities, enhance change detection applications and enable accurate map updates. The satellite is capable of collecting, storing and downlinking more frequently updated global imagery products than any other commercial imaging satellite in orbit, allowing for expedited image capture, processing and delivery to customers where speed is a driving factor. WorldView-1 is equipped with state-of-the-art geo-location accuracy capability and exhibits unprecedented agility with rapid targeting and efficient in-track stereo collection.

WorldView-1 is part of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) NextView program, and was partially financed through an agreement with the NGA. The majority of the imagery captured by WorldView-1 for the NGA will also be available for distribution through DigitalGlobe’s ImageLibrary. Additionally, WorldView-1 immediately frees capacity on DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite to meet the growing commercial demand for multi-spectral geospatial imagery.

WorldView-1 is the first of two new next-generation satellites DigitalGlobe plans to launch in the near term. In late 2008, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. and ITT Corporation will complete WorldView-2, bringing the total number of satellites DigitalGlobe has in orbit to three and enabling the company to offer a constellation of spacecraft that will provide the highest collection capacity – more than 1 million square kilometers per day – of high-resolution Earth imagery directly to customers around the world. Additionally, WorldView-2 will provide eight bands of multi-spectral for life-like true color imagery and greater spectral applications in the mapping and monitoring markets.

Source: DIGITALGLOBE

www.digitalglobe.com

Geo: International