BAE Systems is to build the buses for Vantor‘s Vantor Vantage 20 centimeter imaging satellites, the first two of which are to start operating by 2029, the companies said on Wednesday.
“We are entering a new era of imaging satellite production that is based on a long and successful history of delivering space vehicles for Vantor programs,” Brad Shogrin, vice president and general manager of National Space at BAE Systems Space and Mission Systems segment, said in a statement by the companies. “The Vantage imaging satellites will provide essential data for critical intelligence programs, and we look forward to growing our partnership as we advance to the production phase of these next-generation space vehicles.”
In April, Colorado-based Vantor publicized its development of two new classes of electro-optical (EO) imaging satellites — Vantor Vantage and Vantor Pulse, what is to be the company’s first small satellite. Vantor plans a fleet of more than 10 40-centimeter-class resolution Pulses that can revisit the same location on Earth every 15 minutes.
Vantor said that the first Pulse satellites are expected to start operating next year.
The Vantage is to be “the highest commercial resolution satellite on orbit,” according to Vantor.
Vantor operates the WorldView constellation of EO imaging satellites, which include the new Legion spacecraft that provide 30-centimeter-class resolution and revisit the same area on Earth up to 15 times per day.
The frequent revisit rate of Pulse will provide tipping and cueing for the higher-end Vantage satellites, a combination of capabilities that customers typically rely on multiple imagery providers to accomplish, the company has said.
BAE Systems has experience building buses for imaging satellites dating back to the late 1990s when then-Ball Aerospace, which became part of BAE, started building the first of two QuickBird satellites, the first of which was lost in a launch failure in Russia in November, 2000.
