Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services orbits WorldView-3 satellite

Vandenberg Air Force Base, California – Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services (LMCLS) successfully launched theWorldView-3 commercial remote sensing spacecraft on Aug. 13, 2014. An Atlas V 401 blasted off at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time from Space Launch Complex 3 East, placing WorldView-3 in orbit for customer DigitalGlobe and marking the 118th consecutive successful Atlas launch to date.

 

This is the fourth successful launch in six weeks, the 10th this year, and the 87th successful mission since United Launch Alliance (ULA) was formed in December 2006.

 

"Congratulations to our commercial mission partners Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services and Digital Globe for today's spectacular launch of the Atlas V carrying the WorldView-3 satellite," said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs. 

 

The Atlas booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine, and the Centaur upper stage was powered by a single Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10A engine.

 

WorldView-3 is the first multi-payload, super-spectral, high-resolution commercial satellite for earth observations and advanced geospatial solutions. Operating at an expected altitude of 617km, WorldView-3 will have an average revisit time of less than one day and will be capable of collecting up to 680,000 square kilometers of imagery per day, further enhancing DigitalGlobe’s capacity for rapid and reliable collection.

 

The range of customer applications enabled by the DigitalGlobe constellation is expanded by WorldView-3’s ability to sense both the visible spectrum and deeper into the infrared spectrum. Its data-rich imagery will enable customers to search for new sources of minerals and fuels, manage forests and farms, and accelerate DigitalGlobe’s exploitation of Geospatial Big Data – a living digital inventory of the surface of the earth.

 

“We began this journey several years ago with our client DigitalGlobe, with the single focus of achieving mission success coupled with date-certain revenues for WorldView-3,” said Robert Cleave, president of LMCLS. “As the prime contractor for this launch, LMCLS worked very closely with our subcontractor, United Launch Alliance, as well as DigitalGlobe, to ensure a successful launch within the originally contracted launch window. We look forward to continuing our partnership with DigitalGlobe with the launch of WorldView-4 in 2016.”

 

LMCLS, a business unit of Lockheed Martin Corp., provides Atlas V launch services to all commercial and international satellite customers worldwide, and also offers Athena launch services for small satellites and multi-payload RideShare missions. LMCLS is responsible for contracts, licensing, marketing, sales and mission management for Atlas and Athena missions. Under subcontract to LMCLS, United Launch Alliance provides Atlas launch vehicles and launch support services.

 

WorldView-3 will carry the Exelis-built 1.1 m aperture telescope and the primary visible and short-wave infra-red sensor, as well as the Ball Aerospace-developed CAVIS instrument, which stands for Clouds, Aerosol, water Vapor, Ice, and Snow, which will monitor the atmosphere and provide correction data when atmospheric conditions obscure objects on earth. As with the previous DigitalGlobe satellites, Ball was also responsible for development, integration and testing of the WorldView-3 satellite.

 

"The successful launch of WorldView-3 extends DigitalGlobe's commanding technological lead and will enable us to help our customers see through smoke, peer beneath the ocean's surface and determine the mineral and moisture content of the Earth below – all with unprecedented clarity," said Jeffrey R. Tarr, Chief Executive Officer of DigitalGlobe. The satellite’s views of Earth will be able to aid climate study, disaster and humanitarian relief, defense and intelligence applications, and many commercial industries. "We'd like to thank our customers, partners, team members and investors for their support in bringing to the world the new capabilities made possible with this success," Tarr added.

 

DigitalGlobe recently received permission from the U.S. Department of Commerce to sell high-resolution satellite imagery. Once operational, WorldView-3 will provide the commercial market images with greater clarity and spectral depth than anything previously available. WorldView-3 will collect super-spectral imagery at 0.31m (1ft.) panchromatic resolution. 

 

In recognition of the five companies with Centennial State connections to the satellite, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper proclaimed Aug. 14, 2014, WorldView-3 Day.

 

"WorldView-3 is truly a Colorado endeavor," said Hickenlooper. "The fact that this cutting-edge satellite was built for a Colorado company, by Colorado companies, and launched by Colorado companies, speaks to our state's remarkable aerospace industry and economy."