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WorldView-2 Commercial Satellite Successfully Reaches Orbit Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, October 8, 2009 — WorldView-2, the world's newest commercial remote-sensing satellite, arced into the clear sky over Vandenberg AFB this morning, perched atop a Boeing Delta II 7920 rocket. The satellite then separated from the launch vehicle and entered orbit roughly one hour after launch. The high-resolution, multispectral imaging system (the "eyes" of the satellite) was designed and built by ITT Corporation's (NYSE:ITT) Space Systems Division, headquartered in Rochester, NY with facilities in Clifton, NJ; Vienna, VA; Fort Wayne, IN and Boulder, CO. "This imaging system is the best there is now in the commercial arena," said Robert Mitrevski, vice president and director, ITT Space Systems Commercial and Space Sciences. "With 0.46 meter*, or about 18 inch resolution, it can take a photo of your dog playing in the yard. Its multi-spectral capability will render more accurate color images, and allow much finer analysis of earth-features like road surfaces, vegetation conditions, and even shallow reef structures. It can also produce one-pass stereo images for 3D terrain mapping. I'd like to congratulate all of ITT Space Systems employees on a job well-done, and thank them for their hard work that helped create this success," ended Mitrevski. The imaging system's charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors (which convert light into an electrical charge) were designed jointly by ITT and Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) and manufactured by Kodak in Rochester, NY. WorldView-2 is the third high-resolution imaging system built by ITT for DigitalGlobe (NYSE:DGI), a commercial world-imagery products and services company. *Current U.S. government restrictions require commercial imagery to be re-sampled to 0.50 meters, unless the U.S. government has granted a customer specific waiver of the restriction. About ITT Space Systems ITT's Space Systems Division (www.ssd.itt.com) headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., provides innovative remote sensing and navigation solutions to customers in the Department of Defense, intelligence, space science and commercial aerospace to help them visualize and understand critical events happening on Earth, in the air, or in space in time to take effective action. Leveraging comprehensive capabilities, ITT's solutions span from image and data collection through processing and dissemination. Key applications include high-resolution commercial imaging; space science; climate and environmental monitoring; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; GPS navigation; image and data processing and dissemination; and space control and missile defense. About ITT Corporation ITT Corporation (www.itt.com) is a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company operating on all seven continents in three vital markets: water and fluids management, global defense and security, and motion and flow control. With a heritage of innovation, ITT partners with its customers to deliver extraordinary solutions that create more livable environments, provide protection and safety and connect our world. Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., the company generated 2008 sales of $11.7 billion. © ITT, 2009. |
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