DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 Launched by Delta 2 Rocket

By Space News Staff Writer

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DigitalGlobe’s newest commercial imaging satellite was successfully launched into a 770-kilometer polar orbit Oct. 8 aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

WorldView-2, DigitalGlobe’s most capable satellite to date, is designed to collect black-and-white at half-meter resolution — sharp enough to discern ground objects of that size and larger — and multispectral imagery in eight bands at 1.8-meter resolution. With an ability to collect 975,000 square kilometers of imagery per day, the satellite will double Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe’s overall collection capacity.

WorldView-2 is the third satellite in DigitalGlobe’s constellation, joining the Quickbird imaging satellite that launched in 2001 and the WorldView-1 satellite that launched in 2007.

Imagery from WorldView-2, which DigitalGlobe financed on its own, will be sold to U.S. government and commercial customers.