WorldView-4 30cm Global High-Resolution Satellite Imagery

1st Images from WorldView-4 Satellite

DigitalGlobe, Inc. (NYSE:DGI), has shared the first vibrant, crystal-clear images from the Lockheed Martin-built (NYSE:LMT) WorldView-4 satellite, demonstrating the industry-leading resolution, accuracy and agility of its newest imaging spacecraft.

WorldView-4’s first public image seen to the right, taken on November 26, features the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Shibuya, Tokyo.
The site hosted events during the 1964 Olympic Games and will again host international competition when the games return to Tokyo in 2020.
“Seeing these first images is only a glimpse of the value WorldView-4 will bring to the world,” said Carl Marchetto, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space. “This satellite will help disaster relief workers, city planners and government officials make critical decisions through clear pictures and information about events around the globe.”

WV-4, launched on Nov. 11 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, is the latest in a series of imaging and data satellites built by Lockheed Martin. The satellite captures imagery with industry-leading 30 cm resolution, which enables users to reliably read street markings, distinguish between cars, trucks, and vans, and confidently understand activities of significance. Only imagery with this level of detail could have allowed Associated Press reporters to observe the transfer of fish and positively attribute the boats involved for a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation that exposed a slave fishing operation in the South Pacific.
Building on more than 50 years of experience in remote sensing, WorldView-4 represents Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation imaging satellite with improved resolution and geolocation performance, greater collection volume, and higher agility for rapid retargeting.
Lockheed Martin has built more nearly 800 satellites for civil and military applications including IKONOS, the world’s first commercial sub-meter resolution remote sensing satellite, which was in service for over 15 years -- more than double its original design life.

Source : Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) - view original press release

The latest satellite provides breathing room for DigitalGlobe to provide coveted 30-centimeter imagery to commercial customers that couldn’t obtain such imagery from the company’s WorldView-3 satellite because of prioritized pre-purchased imaging for the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.  

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DigitalGlobe said in an October filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to begin commercial operations and gain incremental revenue from the satellite starting in 2017.
Built by Lockheed Martin, WorldView-4 orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, documenting up to 680,000 square kilometers per day of the planet’s surface. Combined with WorldView-3, which launched in August 2014, the new satellite more than doubles DigitalGlobe’s ability to collect 30-centimeter imagery.
Working with Taqnia Space and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia, the company is creating a constellation of at least six small satellites for sub-meter resolution imaging through a joint venture. Expected to launch in early 2019, the small satellites will leverage DigitalGlobe’s ground infrastructure and distribution while its Saudi partners handle construction, integration and launch. - See more at: http://spacenews.com/digitalglobe-releases-first-photo-from-worldview-4/#sthash.Avqlz2gE.dpuf
- See more at: http://spacenews.com/digitalglobe-releases-first-photo-from-worldview-4/#sthash.Avqlz2gE.dpuf