QuickBird was a high-resolution commercial Earth observation satellite, owned by

DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe is 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 ...

, launched in 2001 and reentered after orbit decay in 2015. QuickBird used Ball Aerospace's Global Imaging System 2000 (BGIS 2000). The satellite collected panchromatic (black and white) imagery at 61 centimeter resolution and

multispectral Multispectral imaging captures image data within specific wavelength ranges across the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths may be separated by filters or detected with the use of instruments that are sensitive to particular wavelengths, ...

imagery at 2.44- (at 450 km) to 1.63-meter (at 300 km) resolution, as orbit altitude is lowered during the end of mission life. 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 A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificatio ...

on a car. The imagery can be imported into

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Eart ...

image processing software, as well as into GIS packages for analysis. Contractors included

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is an American manufacturer of spacecraft, components and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ball Corporation (NYSE: BAL ...

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

and

Fokker Space Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 t ...

. Original plans called for 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 the EarlyBird 1 successfully in 1997 but the satellite lost communications after only four days in orbit due to power system failure.

QuickBird I

The first QuickBird, QuickBird I (or QuickBird 1, QB 1, COSPAR 2000-074A) was launched 20 November 2000, by EarthWatch from the

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome ( rus, Космодром «Плесецк», r=Kosmodrom "Plesetsk", p=kəsmɐˈdrom plʲɪˈsʲet͡sk) is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 ...

in Russia by a

Kosmos-3M The Kosmos-3M (russian: Космос-3М meaning "''Cosmos''", GRAU index 11K65M) was a Russian space launch vehicle, member of the Kosmos rocket family. It was a liquid-fueled two-stage launch vehicle, first launched in 1967 and with over 42 ...

rocket. QB-1 failed to reach planned orbit due to launch vehicle failure and was declared 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

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 the

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg Sp ...

, California, aboard a Boeing

Delta II Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and the two later Delta 7000 ...

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 The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for busin ...

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was able launch the QuickBird II with 0.61 meter panchromatic and 2.4 meter multispectral (previously planned 4 meter) resolution.

Mission Extension

In April 2011, the Quickbird satellite was raised from an orbit of to . 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.

Decaying

The last picture was acquired on December 17, 2014. On January 27, 2015, QuickBird re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

Specifications

Sensors * (1.37 μrad) panchromatic at

nadir The nadir (, ; ar, نظير, naẓīr, counterpart) is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface. The direc ...

* (5.47 μrad)

** MS Channels: blue (450–520 nm), green (520–600 nm), red (630–690 nm), near-IR (760–890 nm) Swath width and area size * Nominal swath width: 18 km at

* Accessible ground swath: 544 km centered on the satellite

ground track A ground track or ground trace is the path on the surface of a planet directly below an aircraft's or satellite's trajectory. In the case of satellites, it is also known as a suborbital track, and is the vertical projection of the satellite's ...

(to 30° off nadir) * Area of interest ** Single area: 18 km by 18 km ** Strip: 18 km by 360 km Orbit * Altitude (original): 450 km – 97.2 degree

sun synchronous A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

circular orbit * Altitude (post-orbit modification): 482 km – 98 degree

inclination * Revisit frequency: 1 to 3.5 days depending on latitude at 60 cm resolution * Viewing angle: Agile spacecraft, in-track and cross-track pointing * Period 94.2 minutes On-board storage * 128 Gigabit capacity (approximately 57 single area images) Spacecraft * Fueled for 7 years, design life 5 years * 2100 lb (950 kg), 3.04 m (10 ft) in length

Launch

* Launch Date: October 18, 2001 * Launch Window: 1851–1906 GMT (1451–1506 EDT) * Launch Vehicle:

* Launch Site: SLC-2W,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

Designation: Quickbird 2.

References

External links

DigitalGlobe
– QuickBird specifications
Ball Aerospace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quickbird Commercial imaging satellites of the United States Spacecraft launched by Delta II rockets Spacecraft launched in 2000 Spacecraft launched in 2001 Spacecraft which reentered in 2015