Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne today helped boost a commercial Earth-imaging spacecraft into orbit to more quickly deliver detailed images for map creation and in-depth analysis. The satellite, WorldView-2, is the third in a constellation. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX ) company.
The mission used a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A engine and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This marked the 232nd flight boosted by the RS-27 family of engines.
“Once again, the RS-27A engine proved its success in boosting a payload into orbit,” said Elizabeth Jones, RS-27A program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. “We’re honored to help deliver technology that will dramatically increase the speed and accuracy of satellite images for both the commercial and government sectors.”
WorldView-2 is the first commercial satellite to offer eight-band capability with advanced accuracy, agility, capacity and spectral diversity. With an altitude of about 450 miles, WorldView-2 each day will collect up to 376,000 square miles of imagery at a half-meter resolution. The satellite uses an advanced gyroscope that allows rapid swings from one target to another, allowing extensive imagery of many targets in a single orbital pass. WorldView-2 alone can revisit any place on Earth in 1.1 days. As part of the satellite constellation, revisit times drop below one day and never exceed two days, providing the most same-day passes of any commercial high-resolution satellite constellation.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc., a part of Pratt & Whitney, is a preferred provider of high-value propulsion, power, energy and innovative system solutions used in a wide variety of government and commercial applications, including the main engines for the space shuttle, Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, missile defense systems and advanced hypersonic engines.
Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines. United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and commercial building industries.
