Orbimage has received a US National Geospatial Imagery Agency (NGA) contract, potentially worth $500 million, to provide high-resolution satellite imagery for use by the Department of Defense. DigitalGlobe was awarded a similar contract in September last year under a US government initiative to boost the fledgling commercial space imagery industry.
Initially, under the NGA's ClearView programme, Orbimage has been guaranteed a minimum $27.5 million over two years to provide 1m-resolution panchromatic and 4m multispectral digital imagery from its Orbital Sciences-built OrbView-3 satellite, launched in June last year. The Dulles, Virginia-based company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December.
Longmont, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe has meanwhile unveiled details of its WorldView next-generation imaging satellite, scheduled for launch by Boeing Delta II no later than 2006. To be built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies, WorldView will be the first commercial satellite capable of 0.5m-resolution panchromatic and 2m multispectral imaging.
In addition to the four standard multispectral bands (red, blue, green and near-infrared), WorldView will include four new bands (coastal, yellow, red edge and near-infrared 2) to allow precise change detection and mapping. The spacecraft will be placed in an 800km-high orbit, higher than that of DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite, and will have increased on-orbit agility, providing an almost-daily revisit capability.
Boeing has partnered with DigitalGlobe on development of the WorldView system, and as well as launching the satellite will provide imagery production services, requirements analysis, and implementation and testing of data-collection management functions. DigitalGlobe's team includes BAE Systems, Harris, IBM and ViaSat among others.
Source: Flight International
