DigitalGlobe released images of Love Field Airport near Dallas and the AT and T Center in San Antonio, Texas. More refinements to early-stage images are anticipated as the satellite's ongoing check-out and calibration continues.

"The first images from WorldView-2 are an early confirmation of the outstanding imagery and geospatial information that we expected using the proven Ball commercial platform," said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace. "Following final calibration in the coming weeks, we expect to see even more superior imagery."

WorldView-2 joins its sister satellites built by Ball Aerospace: WorldView-1 launched in 2007, and QuickBird launched in 2001. The satellite trio is expected to bring unsurpassed agility, capacity, accuracy and spectral diversity to commercial earth imaging.

WorldView-2 and WorldView-1 are the only commercial satellites integrated with control moment gyroscopes (CMGs). These high-performance CMGs provide acceleration up to 10X that of other attitude control actuators and their agility improve both maneuvering and targeting capability. The CMGs afford both satellites the flexibility to capture more imagery than previously possible.

The Ball Commercial Platform 5000 spacecraft, utilized for both the WorldView-1 and Worldview-2, is designed to handle both next-generation optical and synthetic aperture radar remote sensing payloads.

The high-performance BCP 5000 has a design life of more than seven years, and provides a platform with increased power, agility, flexibility, transmission capability and data storage. In addition to manufacture of the satellite bus, Ball Aerospace integrated the WorldView-2 remote sensing instrument provided by ITT and performed all system testing.

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