The WorldView-1 space satellite successfully lifted into orbit on top of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base yesterday morning.  The satellite was built for DigitalGlobe and has a scheduled rotation of at least seven years.  DigitalGlobe hopes to receive first images provided by the satellite by October 16, less than one month away.

WorldView-1 successfully separated from the rocket and is now in orbit more than 300 miles above the Earth's surface.

"This is an exciting event for not only the companies involved with the launch, but also the growing number of consumers and business people using satellite imagery in their daily lives," said Jill Smith, DigitalGlobe CEO.  “The successful launch of WorldView-1 represents the hard work of hundreds of DigitalGlobe employees, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, ITT Corporation and dozens of partner organizations."

DigitalGlobe is one of the key contributors to the Google Earth digital satellite imagery program.  Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, ITT Corporation and several other companies participated in the research and construction of the satellite.

The satellite was designed specifically to be able to snap up at least 290,000 square miles of images per day. 

DigitalGlobe expects to launch the WorldView II satellite before 2009.  With more than three satellites in its fleet before 2009, the company hopes to be able to collect more than 1 million square kilometers of images per day.