Space Commerce

SkySat-1 First Light

By Keith Cowing
December 12, 2013
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SkySat-1 First Light
Perth, Australia As Seen By SkySat-1
SkyBox Imaging

Skybox Imaging: We are excited to share the first images from SkySat-1, the first of our planned constellation of 24 satellites.
The following images were taken over Perth, Australia, on December 4, 2013 at 10:25AM (local time) and are untuned and not yet calibrated. As you can see below, features are clearly discernible that validate our goal to provide high-quality, sub-meter imagery: car windshields, varying car colors, road markings, etc. These images exceed our early expectations for quality.

SkySat-1 is a high-performance satellite producing sub-meter resolution imagery and high-definition video that was designed and built at our headquarters in Mountain View, California. To our knowledge, SkySat-1 is the smallest satellite ever flown that is capable of capturing imagery at better than 1 meter resolution.

SkySat-1 was launched on November 21, 2013 from Yasny, Russia aboard a Dnepr rocket. We made contact with the spacecraft on the first pass and completed bus commissioning within days. Once the payload door was opened, initial images were captured within hours.

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.