The fear that the military and intelligence agencies won’t be the only ones spying on us from the sky has now become a reality.
Just last month, a company named DigitalGlobe launched into the orbit the world’s most powerful commercial satellite, called WorldView-3, a half-billion dollars gadget that can snap sharp images of the ground at a 30-centimeter resolution.
The following video shows the launch of WorldView-3 as seen from Vandenberg Air Force Base on August 13, 2014.
The WorldView-3 is now the highest-resolution commercial satellite in space. This satellite can capture images of “not only a car, but the windshield and the direction the car is going”, almost 40% sharper than what’s currently available. In fact, its images are so sharp that because of “regulatory restrictions, we can’t yet display the 30 cm native resolution data, so we’re sharing imagery resampled to 40 cm”, according to the company – see for example the featured DigitalGlobe images above and below.
The US government is said to be DigitalGlobe’s top customer but the general public can also get to view these highly precise images later through Google Maps. In the commercial sphere, potential applications could range from mapping to corporate logistics to academic research.
Click here for some sample WorldView-3 images.
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