DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite offers sub-meter resolution imagery. Previously at an operational altitude of 482 km, QuickBird is currently operating at an altitude of 450 km and will continue in an gradual descent until its end of mission life at an altitude of 300 km.

QuickBird provides commercial imagery at 0.61 m (PAN) and at 2.4 m (MS) resolution. A successful launch of QuickBird took place on Oct. 18, 2001 on a Delta-2 vehicle of Boeing from Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA.

Trivia:

In 2001 the QuickBird project of DigitalGlobe opted for a fairly low orbital altitude of 450 km (from the previous 600 km altitude level) to obtain a higher ground spatial resolution of the imagery; however, at the expense of swath width. Naturally, the low orbit of 450 km requires more orbit raising maneuvers due to the increased drag influence of the atmosphere. The argument went that the S/C carries enough fuel to adjust the lower orbit more frequently over the operational lifetime of the mission. (source: eoportal.org)

Specification:

Launch information	Date: October 18, 2001
	Launch vehicle: Delta II
	Launch Site: SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Mission life	Extended through mid-2014
Spacecraft size	2400 lbs, 3.04 m (10 ft) in length

	Altitude 450 km	Altitude 300 km
Orbit	Type: Sun-synchronous, 10:00 am descending node	10:00 am descending node
	Period: 93.6 min	Period: 90.4 min
Sensor resolution and spectral bandwidth	Panchromatic: 61 cm GSD at nadir	Panchromatic: 41 cm GSD at nadir
	B&W: 405 – 1053 nm
	Multispectral: 2.44 m GSD at nadir	Multispectral: 1.63 m GSD at nadir
	Blue: 430 – 545 nm
	Green: 466 – 620 nm
	Red: 590 – 710 nm
	Near IR: 715 – 918 nm
Dynamic range	11-bits per pixel
Swath width	Nominal swath width: 16.8 km at nadir	Nominal swath width: 11.2 km at nadir
Attitude determination and control	Type: 3-axis stabilized Star tracker/IRU/reaction wheels, GPS
Retargeting agility	Time to slew 200 km: 38 sec	44 sec
Onboard storage	128 Gb capacity
Communications	Payload data: 320 Mbps X-band
	Housekeeping: X-band from 4,16 and 256 Kbps, 2 Kbps S-band uplink
Revisit frequency (at 40°N latitude)	2.4 days at 1 m GSD or less	2.1 days at 1 m GSD or less
	5.9 days at 20° off-nadir or less	8.7 days at 20° off-nadir or less
Metric accuracy	23 m CE90, 17 m LE90 (without ground control)
Capacity	200,000 km2 per day	100,000 km2 per day