WorldView-2

WorldView-2
Organization	DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe, of Longmont, Colorado, USA, is a commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft...
Mission Type	Earth observation Earth observation satellite Earth observation satellites are satellites specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit, similar to reconnaissance satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc....
Contractor	Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Satellite of	Earth Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
Launch	October 8, 2009 on a Delta II Delta II Delta II was an American space launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II is part of the Delta rocket family and was in service from 1989 until November 1, 2011...
Launch site	Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....
Mission duration	7.25 years
Mass Mass Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...	2800 kg (6,172.9 lb)
Webpage	http://worldview2.digitalglobe.com/
Orbital elements
Altitude	770 kilometers
Inclination Inclination Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.-Orbits:The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit...	97.2 degrees
Orbital Period	100 minutes
Instruments

WorldView-2 is a commercial Earth observation satellite

Earth observation satellite

Earth observation satellites are satellites specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit, similar to reconnaissance satellites but intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, meteorology, map making etc....

 owned by DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe

DigitalGlobe, of Longmont, Colorado, USA, is a commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft...

. WorldView-2 provides commercially available panchromatic imagery of .5 m resolution, and eight-band multispectral imagery with 1.8 m (5.9 ft) resolution.

It was launched October 8, 2009 to become DigitalGlobe's third satellite in orbit, joining WorldView-1

WorldView-1

WorldView-1 is a commercial earth observation satellite owned by DigitalGlobe. It was launched September 18, 2007, and DigitalGlobe plans to launch another, similar satellite after its construction is finished in late 2008...

 which was launched in 2007 and QuickBird

QuickBird

QuickBird is a high-resolution commercial earth observation satellite, owned by DigitalGlobe and launched in 2001 as the first satellite in a constellation of three scheduled to be in orbit by 2008...

 which was launched in 2001.

Design and construction

Ball Aerospace built the spacecraft, which includes an optical telescope that can image objects 18 in (45.7 cm) in diameter.

Launch

WorldView-2 was launched October 8, 2009 from Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

 on a Delta II

Delta II

Delta II was an American space launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II is part of the Delta rocket family and was in service from 1989 until November 1, 2011...

 flying in the 7920 configuration. The launch vehicle was provided by the United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. U.S...

 and launch services were administered by Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

.

Sources

• http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d345/
• http://www.ulalaunch.com/launch/WorldView-2/WV-2_MOB.pdf