AVIATION WEEK – Barely days after ordering a new spacecraft for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) EnhancedView initiative, DigitalGlobe says it will lower the altitude of its WorldView-2 spacecraft, launched in 2009, to enhance spacecraft performance. The move, set for September 2011, will drop the satellite to 680 km. (420 mi.), from 770 km. now. To compensate, engineers will add a few additional ground terminals to the current network of a dozen or so stations, VP for International Strategy Mark Ashwell told a recent remote-sensing forum organized by Euroconsult. Read More
