WorldView-3

WorldView-3 is a commercial very-high-resolution Earth-imaging satellite operated by Vantor (formerly Maxar Intelligence, formerly DigitalGlobe), launched 13 August 2014 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base into a 617 km sun-synchronous orbit at 13:30 local time descending node.^[1][2]

The spacecraft is built on Ball Aerospace's BCP-5000 bus and carries a single integrated imaging system designated the WV-3 Imager (also referred to as the WV110 camera), designed and manufactured by ITT Exelis (now L3Harris Technologies) with a 110 cm aperture telescope.^[1] The imager combines four focal-plane subsystems: a panchromatic channel at 0.31 m ground sample distance (GSD) covering 450-800 nm; an 8-band VNIR multispectral channel at 1.24 m GSD spanning 397-1039 nm (Coastal Blue through Near-IR 2); an 8-band shortwave-infrared (SWIR) channel at 3.70 m GSD covering approximately 1195-2365 nm; and a 12-band CAVIS (Clouds, Aerosols, Vapors, Ice, and Snow) atmospheric correction instrument at 30 m GSD, built by Ball Aerospace with independent optics and focal plane.^[1][3] Total band count across all subsystems is 29.

The swath width is 13.1 km at nadir, with a daily collection capacity of up to 680,000 km2.^[3] Data quantization is 11 bits per pixel for panchromatic and VNIR channels, and 14 bits per pixel for SWIR.^[3] Geolocation accuracy without ground control is better than 3.5 m CE90.^[3]

WorldView-3 was designed for a 7.25-year mission, with an estimated service life of 10-12 years.^[1] As of 2026-05-24 the satellite remains operational in extended mission, having exceeded its design life by more than two years.