US: Ball Aerospace, DigitalGlobe, Exelis and Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services team have moved one step closer to launching the WorldView-3 commercial remote sensing satellite. DigitalGlobe's WorldView-3 satellite was encapsulated within the rocket fairing by engineers on July 25, and the satellite is scheduled to launch on August 13.
WorldView-3 is the first multi-payload, super-spectral, high-resolution commercial satellite for earth observations and advanced geospatial data. Operating at an expected altitude of 617 kilometres, WorldView-3 will collect imagery with 31 centimetre resolution.
WorldView-3 will carry the Exelis-built 1.1 meter aperture telescope and the primary visible/SWIR sensor, as well as the Ball Aerospace-developed CAVIS instrument, which stands for Clouds, Aerosol, water Vapor, Ice, and Snow, that will monitor the atmosphere and provide correction data when atmospheric conditions obscure objects on earth.
Source: DigitalGlobe
