System level testing of the WorldView-2 satellite began in January 2009 and will continue until the satellite is shipped to Vandenberg AFB in California for launch. The environmental tests will confirm the design integrity of the spacecraft and will include thermal vacuum, electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic interference, vibration, shock and acoustic testing.
“The construction of the WorldView-2 satellite is on track and we are pleased with the progress to date. DigitalGlobe is fortunate to partner with Ball Aerospace and ITT to bring the most advanced remote sensing satellite to the market,” said Jill Smith, chief executive officer of DigitalGlobe. “The construction of this satellite and our constellation expansion signifies our ability to provide the largest, most comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date library of imagery possible, and meet the growing demand for premium, high-resolution world imagery from enterprises, consumer navigation providers as well as governments.”
“Ball Aerospace’s capabilities in the remote sensing market continue to advance as WorldView-2 becomes only the second commercial satellite bus after WorldView-1 with Control Moment Gyroscopes that offer greater agility and targeting 2 to 10 times faster than any other commercial imaging system,” said Cary Ludtke, vice president and general manager for Ball’s civil and operational space unit.
The Ball Aerospace BCP 5000 spacecraft, utilized for both the WorldView-1 and Worldview-2, is designed to handle both next-generation optical and synthetic aperture radar remote sensing payloads and is currently meeting or exceeding all performance specifications on the operational WorldView-1 satellite. The high-performance BCP 5000 has a design life of more than seven years, and provides a platform with increased power, agility, flexibility, transmission capability and data storage.
“ITT’s imaging system for WorldView-2 benefits from the company’s over 50 years of experience engineering the industry’s most sophisticated, reliable and innovative remote sensing payloads,” said Chris Young, president of ITT Space Systems Division. “Imagery from this satellite will assist an increasingly diverse commercial and government customer base in making informed decisions.”
To learn more about advanced DigitalGlobe’s constellation of sub-meter satellites, please visit www.digitalglobe.com.
About DigitalGlobe
Longmont, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe ( http://www.digitalglobe.com) is a leading global content provider of high-resolution world imagery solutions. Sourced from our own advanced satellite constellation and aerial network, our imagery solutions deliver a real world perspective to governments, businesses, technology developers and humanitarian associations worldwide. The company’s imagery solutions consist of one of the world’s largest image libraries, growing at a rate of up to 1 million square kilometers per day and distributed and accessed through online search and retrieval, production ready image layers, development tool-kits for internet enabled applications and devices, and software solutions for integration with GIS products and services. DigitalGlobe currently operates the highest-resolution commercial satellite constellation with QuickBird and the first of two next-generation satellites, WorldView-1. The company plans to launch its second next-generation satellite, WorldView-2, in the third quarter of 2009.
DigitalGlobe is a registered trademark of DigitalGlobe.
About Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions of important national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. Since 1956, Ball Aerospace has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific ‘firsts’ and is a technology innovator in aerospace.
Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products for beverage, food and household products customers, and of aerospace and other technologies and services, primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ more than 14,500 people worldwide and reported 2008 sales of more than $7.4 billion.
About ITT Corporation
ITT's Space Systems Division, headquartered in Rochester, New York,
provides innovative remote sensing and navigation solutions to customers
in the Department of Defense, intelligence, space science and commercial
aerospace to help them visualize and understand critical events
happening on Earth, in the air, or in space in time to take effective
action. Leveraging comprehensive capabilities, Space Systems' solutions
span from image and data collection through processing and
dissemination. Key applications include intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance; high-resolution commercial imaging; earth and space
science; climate and environmental monitoring; GPS navigation; image and
data processing and dissemination; and space control and missile
defense. For more information on ITT's Space Systems Division, please
visit
www.ssd.itt.com .
