Quickbird 1

USA



Launch data:

Designation 26617 / 00074A
Launch date 20 Nov 2000 - 23:00 UT
Launch site Plesetsk, LC132/1
Launch vehicle  Cosmos-3M (11K65M - S/N 47165-631)
MissionRemote sensing, Imaging
Sun-synchronous Earth orbit:
Perigee/Apogee 600 km, non-sun-synchronous
Inclination 66°
Period  

US satellite operated by Earth Watch Inc
Partial failure, stage 2 failed to reignite

Specifications

Prime contractor Ball aerospace
Platform BPC-2000
Mass at launch 931 kg
Payload mass 300 kg
Dry mass 899 kg
Dimension 3 x 1.6 x 1.6 m
Solar array 5.2 m
Stabilization  
DC power 350 W
Design lifetime 5 years

Body-pointed spacecraft with ± 30° fore-and-aft, and side-to-side pointing capability. Had four 4.4 N hydrazine thrusters

End of life

Out of service 20 Nov 2000
Cause Not clear yet, possibly a failure of the second stage of the rocket which did not restart at apogee. The satellite would then have falled back to earth.
Decay 21 Nov 2000 close to South America

A second identical satellite is to be launched by end Dec 2001.

External resources

http://www.ball.com/aerospace/qbird.html


Panchromatic Sensor

Wavebands 450-900 nm
Resolution 0.82 m, image size: 22 km x 22 km
Field of regard 704 km


Multispectral Sensor

Wavebands Blue: 450-520 nm
Green: 520-600 nm
Red: 630-690 nm
Near IR: 760-900 nm
Resolution 3.28 m, image size: 22 km x 22 km
Field of regard 704 km

Camera provided by Kodak. On-board data storage: 137 Gigabits. Carries 2 GPS receivers.

The uplink and downlink receivers both use NSA-approved encryption/decryption, with an emergency time-out on the uplink decryptor to allow unencrypted access in case of a system failure. Uplink: S-band (2 kbps), Downlink: X-band (4, 16 or 256 kbps)


Ref: #7, #15 - update: 17.08.08