DigitalGlobe’s recently launched WorldView-2 satellite provides an unprecedented level of detail and geospatial accuracy for imaging and mapping the Earth’s surface. Operating at an altitude of 770 kilometers, WorldView-2 features an advanced onboard imaging system with better than 0.5-meter panoramic resolution and 1.8-meter multispectral resolution and is capable of collecting images of up to 975,000 square kilometers per day.

Built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp, using Ball’s BCP-5000 spacecraft bus, the WorldView-2 satellite has an expected mission life of more than seven years. A key component of the WorldView-2 satellite is the Command Interface Formatter Module (CTIF) developed by Southwest Research Institute. On WorldView-2, a redundant pair of CTIF modules provides complete uplink and downlink telemetry processing. The CTIF modules represent a continuation of SwRI’s long track record of providing highly reliable spaceflight electronics supporting the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) command and telemetry protocols.

In addition to offering spacecraft avionics and computers, SwRI has extensive expertise in spacecraft instruments, theoretical and observational studies, space plasma physics, data analysis and science support, planetary exploration and stellar astronomy. Additionally, SwRI currently serves as the principal investigator institution for the NASA Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) science investigation, and the New Horizons and Juno New Frontiers missions.