[Satellite TODAY Insider 04-18-12] Earth imagery solutions provider DigitalGlobe unveiled the details and capabilities of its upcoming WorldView-3 satellite April 17 at the National Space Symposium.

            The satellite, set to launch in mid-2014, aims to extend the capabilities of DigitalGlobe’s commercial imaging constellation and join the company’s QuickBird, WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 spacecraft in orbit.

            WorldView-3 will offer 0.31-meter resolution panchromatic and eight-band multi-spectral imagery. DigitalGlobe designed the satellite’s imagery capabilities to make it easier for customers to identify small but critical details within an image that are often indiscernible within the visible spectrum.

            Photon Research Associates Founder and CEO James Myer said WorldView-3’s increased identification capability is particularly valuable in a growing number of automated geospatial intelligence applications. “The sensor capability enhancements planned for the WorldView-3 satellite are likely to be game changers,” Myer said in a research report. “These significant improvements will make many of the capabilities and business models that we could only dream about in the mid-1990s a reality.”

            The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently licensed the WorldView-3 spacecraft to collect eight-band short-wave infrared (SWIR) imagery. The new satellite would make DigitalGlobe the only company with multi-band SWIR capabilities.

            “As with WorldView-2 before it, WorldView-3 is the most advanced commercial imaging satellite ever built,” DigitalGlobe Founder, Executive Vice President and CTO Walter Scott said in a statement. “What’s most important, however, is the increased value these new capabilities will provide our customers. We had many options, and after months of working with both government and commercial customers, we chose to add the SWIR bands that will best address our customers’ needs.”

            WorldView-3 is currently being constructed by Ball Aerospace, which has designed and built all of DigitalGlobe’s operational satellites. The imaging instruments, including the SWIR sensor and optics, were engineered and are being built by ITT Exelis.

            “The Exelis-built SWIR instrument leverages mature technologies that deliver state-of-the-art capabilities to DigitalGlobe, their customers and end-users of this information,” Exelis Geospatial Systems Vice President and General Manager Rob Mitrevski said in a statement. “Our development and integration of the SWIR capability will proceed in parallel with the multi-spectral portion of the WorldView-3 instrument. All elements are on schedule.”