QuickBird. QuickBird was a high-resolution commercial Earth observation satellite, owned by DigitalGlobe, launched in 2001 and reentered after orbit decay in 2015. 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.

Contractors included Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Kodak and Fokker Space. Original plans called for a constellation of three QuickBird satellites scheduled to be in orbit by 2008. In the end, two QuickBird satellites, QuickBird I and II, made it to launch pad. However, only QuickBird II made it successfully into orbit (QuickBird I suffered launch failure). Thus QuickBird II satellite is usually referred to simply as QuickBird, and by the name QuickBird is usually meant the satellite QuickBird II.

Prior to QuickBird I and II, DigitalGlobe launched the EarlyBird 1 successfully in 1997 but the satellite lost communications after only four days in orbit due to power system failure.

QuickBird I

The first QuickBird, QuickBird I (or QuickBird 1, QB 1, COSPAR 2000-074A) was launched 20 November 2000, by EarthWatch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia by a Kosmos-3M rocket. QB-1 failed to reach planned orbit due to launch vehicle failure and was declared a failure. The satellite re-entered next day still attached to the upper stage of the rocket. The QB-1 satellite was in construction similar to QuickBird 2 satellite (described above and below in this article), which became later known simply as QuickBird.

QuickBird II 

QuickBird II (also QuickBird-2 or Quickbird 2, QB-2, COSPAR 2001-047A) or as it was later known, simply QuickBird, was launched for DigitalGlobe October 18, 2001 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. The satellite was initially expected to collect at 1 meter resolution but after a license was granted in 2000 by the U.S. Department of Commerce / NASA, DigitalGlobe was able launch the QuickBird II with 0.61 meter panchromatic and 2.4 meter multispectral (previously planned 4 meter) resolution.

Mission Extension 

In April 2011, the Quickbird satellite was raised from an orbit of  to .  The process, started in March 2011, extended the satellite's life. Before the operation the useful life of Quickbird was expected to drop off around mid-2012 but after the successful mission, the new orbit prolonged the satellite life into early 2015.

Decaying 

The last picture was acquired on December 17, 2014. On January 27, 2015, QuickBird re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

Specifications 

Sensors
  (1.37 μrad) panchromatic at nadir
  (5.47 μrad) multispectral at nadir
 MS Channels: blue (450–520 nm), green (520–600 nm), red (630–690 nm), near-IR (760–890 nm)

Swath width and area size
 Nominal swath width: 18 km at nadir
 Accessible ground swath: 544 km centered on the satellite ground track  (to 30° off nadir)
 Area of interest
 Single area: 18 km by 18 km
 Strip: 18 km by 360 km

Orbit 
 Altitude (original): 450 km – 97.2 degree Sun synchronous circular orbit
 Altitude (post-orbit modification): 482 km – 98 degree sun synchronous inclination
 Revisit frequency: 1 to 3.5 days depending on latitude at 60 cm resolution
 Viewing angle: Agile spacecraft, in-track and cross-track pointing
 Period 94.2 minutes

On-board storage 
 128 Gigabit capacity (approximately 57 single area images)

Spacecraft
 Fueled for 7 years, design life 5 years
 2100 lb (950 kg), 3.04 m (10 ft) in length

Launch

 Launch Date: October 18, 2001
 Launch Window: 1851–1906 GMT (1451–1506 EDT)
 Launch Vehicle: Delta II
 Launch Site: SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
 USAF Designation: Quickbird 2.

See also

 2000 in spaceflight
 2001 in spaceflight
 DigitalGlobe

References

External links
 DigitalGlobe – QuickBird specifications
 Ball Aerospace

Commercial imaging satellites of the United States
Spacecraft launched by Delta II rockets
Spacecraft launched in 2000
Spacecraft launched in 2001
Spacecraft which reentered in 2015