VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., July
28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- After a more than 250-mile road
trip in a cleanroom-on-wheels, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:
LMT) delivered DigitalGlobe's (NYSE: DGI) WorldView-4
satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The Lockheed Martin-built WorldView-4 was transported by truck
in a special container that mimics the environment of the cleanroom
where the satellite was manufactured. The route is planned by a
vehicle outfitted with LIDAR technology that can detect low
overpasses, branches and other hazards.
Before shipping, the satellite passed a full suite of
environmental, functional and performance tests and was declared
ready for integration with the rocket that will carry it to an
altitude of nearly 400 miles in space.
The rocket, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 provided
by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, has a four meter
fairing to safely hold the satellite as it accelerates to 17,000
miles per hour during launch – more than seven times faster than
the top speed clocked by the SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet plane
ever.
WorldView-4 is the latest in a series of imaging and data
satellites built by Lockheed Martin for customers around the world.
The satellite is outfitted with a camera so accurate it can discern
the make and model of a car, advanced star trackers to ensure
precision pointing, and antennas that share the collected
information back to Earth.
Once launched, the satellite will more than double
DigitalGlobe's coverage of the world's highest-resolution imagery
and increase the rate at which it grows its 15-year library of
time-lapse high-resolution imagery. WorldView-4 will orbit Earth
every 90 minutes, traveling 17,000 miles per hour and capturing
more than 680,000 square kilometers of the Earth's surface daily
(18 terabytes) – the equivalent of the land area of
Texas.
Photos available here; for additional information, visit our
website: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/commercialspace.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda,
Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace
company that employs approximately 125,000 people worldwide and is
principally engaged in the research, design, development,
manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology
systems, products and services.
Media Contact:
Lockheed Martin: Jill Krugman, +1
303-947-2930; jill.krugman@lmco.com
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SOURCE Lockheed Martin