SkySat-2 image of Port-au-Prince on July 10, 2014.
The first images from Skybox’s SkySat-2 were released only 48 hours after launch, although the sensors have not yet been calibrated or tuned. The images show Bangor, in Maine, USA, and Port-au-Prince, in Haiti (above).
The SkySat-2 system tuning and calibration is expected to continue for several months.
SkyBox gained fame as the first provider of HD Video from space, via its SkySat series of satellites. The constellation will eventually grow to 24, but so far only consists of two. Operations for SkySat-1 and SkySat-2 are conducted from Skybox’s 24/7 mission operations centre in Mountain View, CA.
With a fleet so large, SkyBox hope to deliver “increasingly timely high-resolution imagery, HD video, and analytics.”
“We are incredibly proud of our team that has worked tirelessly to turn a concept of a satellite design on a napkin, to a clean room with two satellites, to the early stages of a constellation in orbit. Each person has played an important role in getting us to this point and the team’s signatures are engraved on the inside panel of SkySat-2, now zipping around the Earth at 7 kilometres per second,” the company commented on its blog.
Additional imagery and video will soon appear in the Skybox Image Gallery.
In the meantime, you can download the full resolution images mentioned above directly from SkySat.
