Satellite operations imagery supplicant requests the government to loosen regulatory leash

It’s always sad when you’re told you have to hold back on the best things you can produce. This situation has been true and probably particularly irritating for US companies like Digitalglobe, who last week, according to this article, went to the US government to ask for permission to sell higher quality images to a […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 11—Payloads and programs—the lesson that won’t get learned.

Last lesson, you learned a little bit about satellite busses and bus-driving. Almost all satellite busses are similar to each other. If you looked at a RapidEye satellite bus specifications and a Digitalglobe satellite bus, you’d likely think they might be one and the same. But the payload is different. The satellite payload (and orbit) […]

A shadow of the future: When is a space shuttle not a space shuttle?

When it is a museum-piece being shuttled by an airplane to its resting place. Digitalglobe’s twitter-feed just sent this out. A little sad picture of the past (almost a year ago). Note the artifacting of the image in the photo? The way Digitalglobe explain it is the aircraft is moving fast during the time their […]

That’s no moon…

…at least according to this article it isn’t, but it is a “quasi-satellite.” They do say in about 5,000 years or so it might become one of Earth’s moons for a while. The interesting thing about this particular satellite (it’s natural) is the orbital configuration, which scientists label co-orbital. Such a weird one coinciding with […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 10–short bus schooling

Labor Day took its toll, but I’m back to write more (hopefully) interesting articles for you. What a space operator should know about satellite systems and space operations fills several volumes of books, folders and checklists. But, in essence, a space operator and space operations crew worries about three things: the satellite ground system, the […]