BlackSky’s Pathfinder 1 launched by ISRO; to revolutionize EO industry. BlackSky‘s Pathfinder 1, which is expected to revolutionise earth imaging, was among the eight satellites launched into orbit by ISRO on September 26. The 97-pound Pathfinder 1 is hugely expected to demonstrate earth imaging technologies that could make it possible for customers to order up a high-resolution image of any location on Earth within 90 minutes of it being acquired. Employees gathered at Spaceflight Industries’ Westlake Avenue headquarters to watch the launch on a big screen. Pathfinder 1 and its twin Pathfinder 2 are part of BlackSky’s plans to build a full constellation of 60 EO satellites by 2020. The satellites will be operating in different orbital regimes once the full constellation comes in place. While two satellites will deliver global coverage from sun-synchronous orbit, the rest are split in eight orbital planes. Since 90% of the global population reside between the latitudes 55 degrees north and south, BlackSky plans to focus on these regions. The constellation will be optimized to maximize revisit times over populated areas to track all sorts of human activity including security, flow of goods, services etc.The company’s business model is not driven by image resolution as one-meter imaging has become common, but rather the revisit time over a given area. The company recently went through a $25-million funding route for developing the constellation and the software platform.
