Digitalglobe announced Oct. 4 that it is planning to launch a second next-generation imagery satellite that will be paired with the first Worldview satellite, being developed under a U.S. government contract.

Worldview 1, designed to collect black-and-white satellite imagery with a resolution of 0.5 meters, is being built under a Nextview award from the U.S. National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency. The spacecraft, scheduled to be launched no later than 2006, will be capable of collecting up to 500,000 square kilometers of imagery per day and downlink directly to customer locations.

Worldview 2, planned to be launched no later than 2008, will provide 0.5-meter imagery as well as 1.8-meter color imagery.