WorldView 4, 7 кубсатов - Atlas V 401 (AV-062) - Ванденберг SLC-3E - 11.11.2016 - 18:30 UTC

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/digitalglobe-no-impact-seen-from-worldview-4-delay-or-nga-contract-with-planet/

DigitalGlobe: No impact seen fr om WorldView-4 delay or NGA contract with Planet
by Peter B. de Selding — October 26, 2016  
DigitalGlobe CEO Jeffrey Tarr said investment in replacement satellites for WorldView-1 and 2 would start in 2017, and that the Saudi-built constellation in which DigitalGlobe is a partner would launch in 2019. Credit: Space Foundation
 
PARIS — Geospatial imagery and services provider DigitalGlobe on Oct. 25 reported increased revenue and gross profit for the three months ending Sept. 30 with a surprisingly large increase in commercial business.
Westminster, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe, whose main revenue source is a 10-year contract with the U.S. National Geospatial-Imagery Agency (NGA), brushed aside NGA's recent contracts with operators of small-satellite constellations, saying it's a long-expected flirtation.
Asked specifically to address a $20 million NGA contract with San Francisco-based Planet, DigitalGlobe Chief Executive Jeffrey R. Tarr said:
"There's nothing new there. NGA has been talking for a couple of years now about experimenting with some of the emerging small-sat players as they come on line. We see no impact whatsoever on our relationship with the NGA. Very different use case: We're foundational and part of the core [NGA] mission."
The launch of DigitalGlobe's WorldView-4 satellite, whose 30-centimeter ground resolution is dedicated to the company's non-U.S. government customers, has been delayed fr om September and is now scheduled for Nov. 6.
In a conference call with investors, DigitalGlobe Chief Financial Officer Gary W. Ferrera said the launch delay is not expected to have any material impact on the company's 2017 revenue.
DigitalGlobe has 10 Direct Access Partners that can control the spacecraft within their specified geographic territories up to the lim it of their contracts' imagery volume. DigitalGlobe has said several DAP customers were frustrated at their limited access to the in-orbit WorldView-3 satellite's 30-centimeter imagery, much of which has been pre-purchased under the NGA contract.
WorldView-4 will open that same resolution, which is currently without equal on the global commercial market, more widely to the company's commercial customers.
Once WorldView-4 is in service, DigitalGlobe's next capacity-augmentation event will be the scheduled 2019 launch of six or more smaller satellites, each with a ground resolution sharper than one meter but likely not as sharp as WorldView-4.
Ferrera said contractual commitments and letters of intent for WorldView-4 imagery so far could add $55 million to the company's annual revenue.

A Saudi constellation in 2019, and its own bigger satellites in 2021
These smaller satellites, called Scouts, will be operated as a constellation. The satellites' development and launch are being managed by two Saudi Arabian government entities, Taqnia Space and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
DigitalGlobe has not disclosed details on the revenue share for the Scout constellation beyond saying the Saudi-built satellites will be used to give DigitalGlobe a "tip and cue" capability wherein the smaller satellites spot something of potential interest and then inform DigitalGlobe's higher-resolution satellites to take a closer look.
Starting in 2017, DigitalGlobe expects to begin investment in one or more satellites to replace the company's aging WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 satellites. Tarr said the entire spending program — presumably including the satellites' construction, launch and insurance — would be no more than $600 million.
Tarr declined to specify the imaging capability of the next satellites but said DigitalGlobe intends "to sustain our lead in resolution."
The current 30-centimeter resolution is already at the lim it of what the U.S. government will permit for commercial satellite imagery. But Tarr said the the new spacecraft could reduce the time between image acquisition, a key metric for many government and commercial customers.
For the three months ending Sept. 30, DigitalGlobe reported revenue of $181.8 million, up 4.9 percent over the same period a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, was 53.7 percent of revenue, up from 53 percent the previous year.
The company said its full-year 2016 revenue would be between d$700 million and $710 million, flat from 2015. But EBITDA is expected to be 52.5 percent of revenue against 50.5 percent last year.
U.S. government-derived revenue for the three months ending Sept. 30 was $114.5 million, up 3.2 percent from the previous year. While the company's core 10-year EnhancedView contract with NGA was stable, as expected, the government purchased more value-added services from DigitalGlobe than a year ago.

A commercial surprise and a Russian rebound
The real surprise in the quarterly results was on the commercial side. Diversified commercial revenue was up 8 percent from last year, to $67.3 million. DAP customers accounted for $30.3 million of the commercial total, up 4.8 percent.
Tarr said Microsoft, which sold much of its mapping business to Uber, it retained the portion that feeds its Bing internet search engine, which like all location-based services must be regularly refreshed.
DigitalGlobe said its Russian business, which in the past couple of years has fallen sharply, appears to be rebounding, with revenue increases for each of the first three quarters of 2016. As of Sept. 30, Russian customers generated $5.4 million in revenue, compared to $4.3 million for all of 2015.

[vogel]

Update: Nov. 2, 2016, 11:25 a.m. PDT - The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V carrying the WorldView-4 satellite for DigitalGlobe is now scheduled for Nov. 11. The team is actively working to resolve minor Atlas V booster issues discovered during final preparations for launch.  The Atlas V will launch from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The launch window is 10:30-10:46 a.m. PST.

http://www.ulalaunch.com/atlas-v-to-launch-worldview4.aspx
Перенос на 11 ноября из-за "небольшой проблемы с ускорителем". Пусковое окно то же.

[Salo]

[Salo]

Spaceflight Now ‏@SpaceflightNow  28 мин.28 минут назад
Favorable weather with clear skies, light winds and warm temps for Friday's California Atlas 5 launch of #WorldView4 #WV4 at 10:30am local
 

[Salo]

По его словам, первый такой старт запланирован уже на ближайшую пятницу - 11 ноября - на базе ВВС США Ванденберг (штат Калифорния). В этот день должен произойти вывод в космос спутника в интересах компании DigitalGlobe при помощи носителя Atlas V. Пользуясь этой возможностью, NASA хочет вывести на орбиту и небольшой радиометрический прибор, работа которого призвана помочь лучше понять воздействие парниковых газов на глобальное изменение климата. Небольшой спутник, несущий этот научный инструмент, станет вторичной нагрузкой ракеты-носителя Atlas V.

Подробнее на ТАСС:
http://tass.ru/kosmos/3768255

[Salo]

Tory Bruno Подлинная учетная запись ‏@torybruno  
Still looking good for Friday. Pgo=100%. #AtlasV #WorldView4

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/11/10/atlas-5-rocket-and-worldview-4-satellite-ready-to-fly-after-wildfire-delay/

Atlas 5 rocket and WorldView 4 satellite ready to fly after wildfire delay             
 November 10, 2016 Justin Ray
 
Credit: United Launch Alliance

The belated launch of a powerful Earth-imaging satellite that will take the highest resolution pictures in the market, postponed by an unprecedented wildfire near the pad, is scheduled to fly on Friday.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will propel the WorldView 4 spacecraft into a sun-synchronous polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Friday's launch window, which has moved up one hour by the conclusion of Daylight Savings Time, extends from 10:30 to 10:45 a.m. local (1:30-1:45 p.m. EST; 1830-1845 GMT).
Air Force meteorologists say there is a 100 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions.   
The liftoff comes nearly eight weeks after the Sept. 18 countdown, already in progress, was halted so firefighters could remain in place to battle a wildfire burning in a remote Vandenberg canyon south of the launch pad.
It took nearly a week to contain the erratic and swift-moving blaze, which burned more than 12,500 acres. What sparked the fire remains under investigation.
Although the launch pad was unharmed, the fire damaged the power and communications infrastructure at Vandenberg that has taken several weeks to repair.
The WorldView 4 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin for operator DigitalGlobe, weathered the fire in the snug confines of the nose cone of the Atlas 5 rocket, which itself was cocooned by the pad's mobile service gantry.
A further slip this week was made to verify the booster's readiness.
It will take 19 minutes, including a single burn by the Centaur upper stage, for the Atlas 5 to accelerate the 5,479-pound payload into an orbit of 379 by 390 miles, tilted 97.96 degrees to the equator, flying from pole to pole to image virtually anywhere on the planet.

 Animated mission preview. Courtesy United Launch Alliance
Not only postponed two months by the wildfire, WorldView 4's deployment comes more than three years after its original launch target, a delay caused by a corporate merger by former competitors GeoEye and DigitalGlobe.
That marriage brought the two companies together, blending their operations and independent fleets of imaging satellites into one powerhouse firm.
While both companies were developing state-of-the-art satellites for launch before the merger, the new firm opted to launch DigitalGlobe's WorldView 3 satellite first since it also provided multiple short-wave infrared bands that could penetrate haze, fog, dust, smoke and other airborne particulates.
That left GeoEye's bird on the ground to await market demand for its launching to effectively double DigitalGlobe's high-resolution imagery collection capacity. The craft, originally built under the name GeoEye 2, was renamed WorldView 4 after the merger.
WorldView 4 is designed to see objects as small as 1-foot-wide (31 cm) in panchromatic mode and has a 4-foot resolution (1.24 m) in color. It will image 263,000 square miles (680,000 square km) of the Earth's surface per day, doubling the capacity of WorldView 3 now in service providing the same quality high-res data.
"Importantly, WorldView 4 will substantially increase our ability to image the world with the resolution, accuracy and clarity far beyond that of all other commercial providers, enabling us to better serve our international defense and intelligence customers and advance new commercial use cases," said Jeffrey Tarr, DigitalGlobe chief executive officer.
 
An artist's concept of WorldView 4. Credit: DigitalGlobe

WorldView 3 was launched on Aug. 13, 2014 from Vandenberg aboard another Atlas 5. Its imaging capacity is filled by the U.S. government, DigitalGlobe's biggest customer.
The WorldView 4 spacecraft will launch aboard the Atlas 5 originally built to send NASA's InSight lander to Mars earlier this year. The vehicle, designated AV-062, was stacked on the pad awaiting that mission when an instrument problem delayed the launch until 2018, when Earth is again in alignment with the red planet.
Since both InSight and WorldView 4 are using the same rocket configuration — a 401 variant with no solid motors — the passengers could be easily swapped.
After WorldView 4 came out of lengthy storage, Lockheed Martin technicians completed health checks of major systems and tested image collection and downlinking capabilities. It was trucked by road from Sunnyvale to Vandenberg on July 24.
The launch site processing activities included a final round of testing and the loading of 1,000 pounds of orbital maneuvering propellant. On Sept. 2, encapsulation within the rocket's 14-foot-diameter nose cone was performed and delivery to the pad occurred on Sept. 7 for mating to the rocket.
In addition to WorldView 4, the rocket also carries seven cubesats to be deployed into a different orbit from the primary payload as part of a National Reconnaissance Office-sponsored rideshare mission called ENTERPRISE. The tiny hitchhikers are being launched from Centaur's Aft Bulkhead Carrier for technology research.
Friday's countdown will begin ticking at 2:30 a.m. local time, followed by retraction of the gantry three hours later. Fueling of the vehicle with 66,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen should start around 8:15 a.m. local.
It will mark the 15th commercial mission for the Atlas 5 and the rocket's 12th launch from Vandenberg. The launcher has flown 65 times since 2002.

[che wi]

[che wi]

http://www.ulalaunch.com/uploads/docs/Mission_Booklets/AV/av_wv4_mob.pdf

[che wi]

6:15 a.m. local (1415 GMT)
The 8-million-pound mobile service tower has been retracted from around the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 19-story-tall vehicle for liftoff at 10:30 a.m. local time today.
The ground crews are getting the gantry's doors closed, plus finishing the final buttoning up of pad equipment before all workers clear the pad for the remainder of the countdown.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/11/10/av062status2/

[che wi]

[Прол]

Пошла трансляция.

[che wi]

Включили трансляцию

[che wi]

[che wi]

- The 648th launch for Atlas program since 1957
- The 296th Atlas launch from Vandenberg AFB since 1959
- The 45th Atlas to use Space Launch Complex 3
- The 12th Atlas 5 launch from Vandenberg AFB since 2008
- The 237th mission of a Centaur upper stage
- The 214th use of Centaur by an Atlas rocket
- The 473rd production RL10 engine to be launched
- The 14th RL10C-1 engine launched
- The 72nd flight of the RD-180 main engine
- The 66th launch of an Atlas 5 since 2002
- The 99th Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle flight
- The 15th commercial mission for Atlas 5
- The 112th United Launch Alliance flight overall
- The 58th Atlas 5 under United Launch Alliance
- The 19th commercial launch by United Launch Alliance
- The 5th DigitalGlobe spacecraft launched by ULA
- The 32nd United Launch Alliance flight from Vandenberg
- The 45th 400-series flight of the Atlas 5
- The 33rd Atlas 5 to fly in the 401 configuration
- The 9th ULA launch of the year
- The 6th Atlas 5 launch of 2016

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/11/10/av062status2/

[Прол]

Похоже, в DG на руководящие должности не берут без актерской подготовки - очень проникновенный рассказ .

[LRV_75]

Тоже идет голосовой доклад готовностей 

[che wi]

Пошла.

[Lanista]

Хорошо идет.

[che wi]