Successful Launch of WorldView-2

08 October 2009, 12:37am

Longmont, Colo., October 8, 2009 – DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI), a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution world-imagery products and services for defense and intelligence, civil government, and commercial customers, today announced the successful launch and deployment of WorldView-2, the company’s latest high-resolution, remote-sensing satellite. The satellite launched on a Boeing Delta II 7920 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The DigitalGlobe ground station received a downlink signal confirming that the satellite successfully separated from its launch vehicle and automatically initialized its onboard processors. WorldView-2 is currently undergoing a calibration and check-out period. DigitalGlobe expects imagery products and services from WorldView-2 to be commercially available in approximately 90 days.

“The successful launch of WorldView-2 is an important milestone for the industry and for DigitalGlobe,” said Jill Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of DigitalGlobe. “Once commissioned, WorldView-2 will effectively double DigitalGlobe’s collection capacity, enabling us to provide at least annually updated coverage of the world as well as intra-day revisit for more rapid and reliable collection for our customers. Additionally, WorldView-2’s eight spectral bands will significantly enhance our ability to meet our customers’ needs for feature identification, change, detection, and other high-value services.”

As the most recent of the next-generation WorldView-class satellites, WorldView-2 features advanced agility and accuracy, industry-leading capacity, and eight-band multispectral imagery. WorldView-2 will collect multispectral imagery at 1.8 meter resolution and panchromatic imagery at .46 meters.[i] The additional band capability supports improved levels of feature identification and extraction and more accurately reflects the world’s natural color.

The satellite was built by Ball Aerospace (NYSE: BLL) and the imaging sensor was provided by ITT Corporation’s (NYSE: ITT) Space Systems Division.

DigitalGlobe’s constellation of sub-meter satellites

Geo: International