Misplaced Pages

#52947

32-423: At this resolution, detail such as buildings and other infrastructure are easily visible. However, this resolution is insufficient for working with smaller objects such as a license plate on a car. The imagery can be imported into remote sensing image processing software, as well as into GIS packages for analysis. Contractors included Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Kodak and Fokker Space. Original plans called for

64-454: A constellation of three QuickBird satellites scheduled to be in orbit by 2008. In the end, two QuickBird satellites, QuickBird I and II, made it to launch pad. However, only QuickBird II made it successfully into orbit (QuickBird I suffered launch failure). Thus QuickBird II satellite is usually referred to simply as QuickBird, and by the name QuickBird is usually meant the satellite QuickBird II. Prior to QuickBird I and II, DigitalGlobe launched

96-486: A design life of 3 years (fuel reserves for 5 years). It included a panchromatic (black-and-white) camera with a 3 m (9.8 ft) resolution and a multispectral (color) camera with a 15 m (49 ft) resolution. The imaging sensor was derived from a 1998-cancelled NASA satellite called Clark (SSTI 2). EarlyBird-1 was the first commercial satellite to be launched from the Svobodny Cosmodrome. Although

128-435: A failure. The satellite re-entered next day still attached to the upper stage of the rocket. The QB-1 satellite was in construction similar to QuickBird 2 satellite (described above and below in this article), which became later known simply as QuickBird. QuickBird II (also QuickBird-2 or Quickbird 2 , QB-2 , COSPAR 2001-047A) or as it was later known, simply QuickBird , was launched for DigitalGlobe October 18, 2001 from

160-459: A panchromatic only camera with a 50 cm (20 in) maximum resolution. Ball Aerospace built WorldView-2. It was launched on 8 October 2009. DigitalGlobe partnered with Boeing commercial launch services to deliver WorldView-2 into a Sun-synchronous orbit . The satellite includes a panchromatic sensor with a 46 cm (18 in) maximum resolution and a multispectral sensor of 184 cm (72 in) Ball Aerospace built WorldView-3. It

192-470: Is in Huntsville, Alabama , United States. In 2008, Intergraph was one of the one hundred largest software companies in the world. In July 2010, Intergraph was acquired by Hexagon AB . Intergraph was founded in 1969 as M&S Computing, Inc. , by former IBM engineers Jim Meadlock, his wife Nancy, Terry Schansman (the S of M&S), Keith Schonrock, and Robert Thurber who had been working with NASA and

224-436: Is used for large-scale mapping projects. GeoEye-1 can revisit any point on Earth once every three days or sooner. Ball Aerospace built WorldView-1. It was launched on 18 September 2007 from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II 7920-10C. Launch services were provided by United Launch Alliance (ULA). The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is expected to be a major customer of WorldView-1 imagery. It included

256-554: The Amazon Conservation Team , to the U.S. federal agencies , including NASA and the United States Department of Defense 's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Much of Google Earth and Google Maps high resolution-imagery is provided by DigitalGlobe. DigitalGlobe's main competitor is Airbus with Spot and Pleiades satellites. Intergraph Corporation Intergraph Corporation

288-952: The Strategic Defense Initiative . Doug Gerull was the executive in charge of the Mapping Sciences division at the Intergraph Corporation . The company's first remote sensing license from the United States Department of Commerce allowed it to build a commercial remote sensing satellite capable of collecting images with 3 m (9.8 ft) resolution. In 1995, the company became EarthWatch Incorporated , merging WorldView with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. 's commercial remote sensing operations. In September 2001, EarthWatch became DigitalGlobe. In 2007, DigitalGlobe acquired online imagery provider GlobeXplorer to extend its imagery distribution capabilities via online APIs and web services. In 2011, DigitalGlobe

320-513: The U.S. Army in developing systems that would apply digital computing to real time missile guidance. The company was later renamed to Intergraph Corporation in 1980. One of Intergraph's major hardware projects was developing a line of workstations using the Clipper architecture created by Fairchild Semiconductor . Intergraph was one of only two companies to use the chips in a major product line. Intergraph developed their own version of UNIX for

352-523: The Vandenberg Air Force Base , California, aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. The satellite was initially expected to collect at 1 meter resolution but after a license was granted in 2000 by the U.S. Department of Commerce / NASA , DigitalGlobe was able launch the QuickBird II with 0.61 meter panchromatic and 2.4 meter multispectral (previously planned 4 meter) resolution. In April 2011,

SECTION 10

#1733085486053

384-572: The EarlyBird 1 successfully in 1997 but the satellite lost communications after only four days in orbit due to power system failure. The first QuickBird, QuickBird I (or QuickBird 1 , QB 1 , COSPAR 2000-074A) was launched 20 November 2000, by EarthWatch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia by a Kosmos-3M rocket. QB-1 failed to reach planned orbit due to launch vehicle failure and was declared

416-719: The Quickbird satellite was raised from an orbit of 450 km (280 mi) to 482 km (300 mi). The process, started in March 2011, extended the satellite's life. Before the operation the useful life of Quickbird was expected to drop off around mid-2012 but after the successful mission, the new orbit prolonged the satellite life into early 2015. The last picture was acquired on December 17, 2014. On January 27, 2015, QuickBird re-entered Earth's atmosphere. Sensors Swath width and area size Orbit On-board storage Spacecraft EarthWatch Incorporated DigitalGlobe

448-630: The U.S. military. However, DigitalGlobe obtained permission, in June 2014, from the United States Department of Commerce , to allow the company to more widely exploit its commercial satellite imagery. The company was permitted to offer customers the highest resolution imagery available from their constellation. Additionally, the updated approvals allowed the sale of imagery to customers at up to 25 cm (9.8 in) panchromatic and 100 cm (39 in) multispectral ground sample distance (GSD), beginning six months after WorldView-3 became operational. WorldView-3

480-509: The architecture, which they called CLIX. In 1987, Intergraph bought the Fairchild division responsible for the chip. In 1997, Intergraph began pursuing patent infringement litigation against Intel and other computer hardware manufacturers based on the intellectual property developed in Clipper. Intergraph negotiated major settlements with Intel, HP , Texas Instruments and Gateway , earning

512-404: The company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell MDA to a consortium of financial sponsors led by Northern Private Capital for CAD$ 1 billion (US$ 765 million). The sale included all of MDA's Canadian businesses, encompassing ground stations, radar satellite products, robotics, defense, and satellite components, representing approximately 1,900 employees. On 8 April 2020,

544-412: The company over $ 394M. In 2000, Intergraph exited the hardware business and became purely a software company. On July 21, 2000, it sold its Intense3D graphics accelerator division to 3Dlabs , and its workstation and server division to Silicon Graphics . On November 29, 2006, Intergraph was acquired by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman LLC, Texas Pacific Group and JMI Equity, making

576-460: The company privately held. On October 28, 2010, Intergraph was acquired by Hexagon AB . The transaction marks the return of Intergraph as part of a publicly traded company. As part of the Hexagon acquisition, Hexagon moved the management of ERDAS, Inc. from under Leica Geosystems to Intergraph, and Z/I Imaging airborne imaging sensors from under Intergraph to Leica Geosystems. On December 2, 2013,

608-528: The company received the first high resolution commercial remote sensing satellite license issued under the 1992 Act. The company was initially funded with private financing from Silicon Valley sources and interested corporations in North America, Europe and Japan. Dr. Scott was head of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories "Brilliant Pebbles" and "Brilliant Eyes" projects which were part of

640-628: The geospatial technology portfolio was split out from under the Intergraph Security, Government and Infrastructure division to form the Hexagon Geospatial division. On October 13, 2015, the Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure division was rebranded as Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure. On January 9, 2017, the Intergraph Government Solutions division was rebranded as Hexagon US Federal. On June 5, 2017,

672-430: The launch was successful, the satellite lost communications after only four days in orbit due to power system failure. IKONOS was launched 24 September 1999. It was the world's first high-resolution commercial imaging satellite to collect panchromatic (black-and-white) images with 0.8 m (2 ft 7 in) resolution and multispectral (color) imagery with 3.2 m (10 ft) resolution. On 31 March 2015, IKONOS

SECTION 20

#1733085486053

704-754: The loss of QuickBird-1; after this, the second satellite of the series, QuickBird-2 was launched and it is this satellite that became known simply as QuickBird (as no other QuickBird satellites were launched). It included a panchromatic camera with a 60 cm (24 in) resolution and a multispectral camera with a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) resolution. On 27 January 2015, QuickBird was de-orbited, exceeding her initial life expectancy by nearly 300%. The GeoEye-1 satellite collects images at 0.41 m (1 ft 4 in) panchromatic (black-and-white) and 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) multispectral resolution. The satellite can collect up to 350,000 km (140,000 sq mi) of multispectral imagery per day. This

736-541: The sale of the MDA assets to NPC officially closed. The newly formed privately held Canadian company was named MDA. EarlyBird-1 (COSPAR 1997-085A) commercial Earth imaging satellite was built for EarthWatch Inc. by CTA Space Systems (later part of Orbital Sciences Corporation ) and launched on 24 December 1997, from the Svobodny Cosmodrome by a Start-1 launch vehicle. It had a mass of 317 kg (699 lb) and

768-505: The spacecraft was designed and built by Lockheed Martin , while the camera payload was provided by ITT Corporation . Following the merger of GeoEye and DigitalGlobe, in 2013, DigitalGlobe announced that GeoEye-2 would be completed as a ground spare to be launched if or when required. It was renamed to WorldView-4 in July 2014, when the company announced that it would be launched in Fall 2016. It

800-571: The unrelated WorldView company (a stratospheric balloon operator). WorldView Imaging Corporation was founded in January 1992 in Oakland, California in anticipation of the 1992 Land Remote Sensing Policy Act (enacted in October 1992) which permitted private companies to enter the satellite imaging business. Its founder was Dr Walter Scott, who was joined by co-founder and CEO Doug Gerull in late 1992. In 1993,

832-500: Was an American commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on 14 May 2009, selling 14.7 million shares at US$ 19.00 each to raise US$ 279 million in capital. On 5 October 2017, Maxar Technologies completed its acquisition of DigitalGlobe. The company's "WorldView" satellites should not be confused with

864-413: Was an American software development and services company, which now forms part of Hexagon AB . It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the world, and operates through three divisions: Hexagon Asset Lifecycle Intelligence (ALI, formerly PPM), Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure, and Hexagon Geospatial. The company's headquarters

896-732: Was inducted into the Space Foundation 's Space Technology Hall of Fame for its role in advancing commercial Earth-imaging satellites. In 2013, DigitalGlobe purchased GeoEye . In February 2017, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) and DigitalGlobe reached an agreement for MDA to acquire DigitalGlobe for US$ 2.4 billion. As of May 2017, DigitalGlobe's image catalog contains 100 petabytes worth of data, and grows by 100 terabytes each day. As of 5 October 2017, MDA has announced it has completed its acquisition of DigitalGlobe. On 5 October 2017, DigitalGlobe and MDA Holdings Company merged to become Maxar Technologies On 30 December 2019,

928-527: Was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle in the 401 configuration on 13 August 2014, at 18:30 UTC from Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 3 (SLC-3E) at Vandenberg Air Force base. WorldView-3 is the industry's first multi-payload, super-spectral, high-resolution commercial satellite. The WorldView-4 satellite was designed to provide panchromatic images at a highest resolution of 31 cm (12 in), and multispectral images at 124 cm (49 in). Originally named GeoEye-2,

960-788: Was launched on 11 November 2016. In January 2019, the company reported the failure of a control moment gyroscope on the satellite, rendering it inoperable. Currently being built by Maxar Technologies , WorldView Legion is Maxar 's next generation of Earth observation satellites . WorldView Legion comprises six satellites planned to launch in 2023 into a mix of Sun-synchronous and mid-latitude orbits. These satellites will replace imaging capability currently provided by Maxar's WorldView-1 , WorldView-2 and GeoEye-1 Earth observation satellites. The six WorldView Legion satellites are contracted to launch on three flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicles. DigitalGlobe's customers range from urban planners, to conservation organizations like

992-444: Was launched on 13 August 2014. It has a maximum resolution of 25 cm (9.8 in). WorldView-3 operates at an altitude of 617 km (383 mi), where it has an average revisit time of less than once per day. Over the course of a day it is able to collect imagery of up to 680,000 km (260,000 sq mi). Previously, DigitalGlobe was only licensed to sell images with a higher resolution than 50 cm (20 in) to

QuickBird - Misplaced Pages Continue

1024-494: Was officially decommissioned after more than doubling her mission design life, spending 5,680 days in orbit and making 83,131 trips around the Earth. QuickBird, launched on 18 October 2001, was DigitalGlobe's primary satellite until early 2015. It was built by Ball Aerospace , and launched by a Boeing Delta II . It is in a 450 km (280 mi) altitude, 98° inclination Sun-synchronous orbit . An earlier launch attempt resulted in

#52947