Wikipedia
Organization
DigitalGlobe
Mission Type
Earth observation
Contractor
Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Satellite of
Earth
Launch
October 18, 2001 on a Delta 7320-10 D288
Launch site
Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-2W
Design life
5 years
Mission duration
Mass
1100 kg (launch)
951 kg (dry)
Webpage
http://web.archive.org/web/20130503081338/http://www.digitalglobe.com:80/company/content-collection/quickbird
Orbital elements
Semi-major axis
6828 km
Inclination
98 degrees
Orbital Period
93.4 minutes
Instruments
Visible cameras
61 cm panchromatic 2.4 meter multispectral
QuickBird was a high-resolution commercial earth observation satellite, owned by DigitalGlobe launched in 2001 and decayed in 2015. It was the first satellite in a constellation of three scheduled to be in orbit by 2008. QuickBird used Ball Aerospace's Global Imaging System 2000 (BGIS 2000). The satellite collected panchromatic (black and white) imagery at 61 centimeter resolution and multispectral imagery at 2.44- (at 450 km) to 1.63-meter (at 300 km) resolution, as orbit altitude is lowered during the end of mission life.
At this resolution, detail such as buildings and other infrastructure are easily visible. However, this resolution is insufficient for working with smaller objects such as a license plate on a car. The imagery can be imported into remote sensing image processing software, as well as into GIS packages for analysis. The imagery can also be used as a backdrop for mapping applications, such as Google Earth and Google Maps.
Contractors include Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Kodak and Fokker Space.