WorldView-3 employs the Ball Configurable Platform BCP 5000 spacecraft, which is designed to handle the next-generation optical and synthetic aperture radar remote sensing payloads and currently meets or exceeds all performance specifications on DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 satellite.
With the imagery sensor and associated electronics now integrated, the completed WorldView-3 satellite bus is ready for system-level performance testing, followed by thermal vacuum and environmental testing.
Ball's third commercial platform in the WorldView series will equip DigitalGlobe with advanced technologies to enhance its high-resolution imagery constellation, said Cary Ludtke, vice president and general manager for Ball Aerospace's Operational Space business unit. Ball and DigitalGlobe have proven to be a strong team for providing government and commercial customers with some of the highest quality and resolution satellite imagery available.
WorldView-3 is the first multipayload, superspectral, high-resolution commercial satellite for Earth observations and advanced geospatial solutions. Operating at an expected altitude of 617 km, WorldView-3 will collect 31-cm panchromatic resolution, 1.24-meter multispectral resolution and 3.7-meter short-wave infrared resolution.
In addition to the satellite bus, Ball Aerospace is providing an atmospheric instrument called CAVIS, which stands for Cloud, Aerosol, Water Vapor, Ice, Snow. CAVIS, which will offer 30-meter resolution, will monitor the atmosphere and provide correction data to improve WorldView-3’s imagery when it images Earth objects through haze, soot, dust or other obscurants. CAVIS also has been integrated with the spacecraft.
Image courtesy of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
