Dec. 10,
2015
Raytheon Company has been
selected by the high-resolution Earth imagery company,
DigitalGlobe, Inc., to develop the capability to support a
September 2016 launch and
mission planning of DigitalGlobe's WorldView-4 satellite.
Raytheon's Constellation Scheduling System (CSS) is the
commercial geospatial mission planning system for companies
who want cost and resource efficiencies through automation
while increasing satellite utilization and imagery yield.
"Raytheon's CSS has a proven record of maximizing the
capture of usable imagery," said
Jane Chappell, vice president of Raytheon's Global
Intelligence Solutions. "DigitalGlobe's trust in Raytheon to
expand their commercial constellation is confirmation of our
reliable ground station automation services valued by
satellite operators and commercial data providers."
DigitalGlobe owns and operates the world's most agile and
sophisticated constellation of commercial Earth imaging
satellites. WorldView-4 — a commercial satellite featuring
industry-leading 30 cm resolution imagery — will be the
fifth DigitalGlobe satellite to have planning and scheduling
support provided by Raytheon's CSS. The system runs routine
planning and scheduling automatically, yielding more
efficient schedules, and allowing DigitalGlobe to focus on
fulfilling customer orders for specific imagery.
The new competitively-awarded contract to prepare the
ground station for WorldView-4 is part of the first phase in
the development of DigitalGlobe's next generation ground
system, Platform 20/20. The September
2016 launch of WorldView-4, from Vandenberg Air Force
Base, California, will be
supported by Raytheon space launch range services.
