DigitalGlobe’s Grand Globe Gathering Gesture

DigitalGlobe has released the first images from WorldView-1, the highest resolution commercial satellite that was successfully launched on September 18 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The satellite has been undergoing a routine calibration and checkout period. DigitalGlobe expects WorldView-1 to be fully operational and delivering imagery products by the end of the year, if not sooner. DigitalGlobe is the only company operating a constellation of sub-meter commercial imaging satellites. In late 2008, the company will complete WorldView-2, which will provide eight bands of multi-spectral data for life-like true color imagery.


WorldView-1’s first images include half-meter snapshots from: Houston, Texas, USA, acquired October 2, 2007; Yokohama, Japan, acquired October 5, 2007; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, acquired October 5, 2007. 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—Longmont, Colorado