Final adjustments being made to new WorldView satellite

WorldView-2 is the next satellite in the series and will be the first high-resolution multispectral platform, offering 50cm panchromatic (black and white) and 184cm full-colour resolution images. The satellite was launched and is operated by DigitalGlobe.

It is also the first satellite to offer eight-band colour imagery and is able to image in what Space Imaging calls “coastal (400nm-450nm)”, “red edge (705-645nm)”, “yellow (585-625nm)” and near infra-red light (860-1040nm) wavelengths. This will offer greater detail for specialist applications.  

Space Imaging's Adel Ghlaib, which will sell some of its imagery, says that this multi-spectral capability will offer many new opportunities.  

“This new capability will be extremely useful for environmental studies,” he says. “At the moment the satellite is still being calibrated, but its imagery should be available to customers very soon.”  

WorldView-2 was launched in October into a 770km high orbit. With an estimated mission life of more than seven years, it is also the first satellite to feature control moment gyroscopes (CMGs). These provide acceleration of up to 10X that of other attitude controls and improves both manoeuvring and targeting capability.  

With the CMGs, the satellite can swing to cover a new area 300km away in just nine seconds. This means WorldView-2 can create stereo images, in a single orbital pass. It will also be able to revisit an area, on average, every 1.1 days.