SAN FRANCISCO, June 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orbital Sidekick (OSK), the global leader in space-based commercial hyperspectral monitoring, today announced the successful launch of GHOSt 3, the third satellite in its planned GHOSt(™) (Global Hyperspectral Observation Satellite) constellation aboard the Transporter 8 rideshare mission. This launch marks the halfway point for deployment of the company's planned six-satellite constellation. OSK is on track to deploy two more satellites this year aboard the Transporter 9 rideshare mission and by early next year, GHOSt will consist of six equivalent, fully operational microsatellites, each featuring a proprietary hyperspectral imager unique to OSK.
This latest mission comes on the heels of the company’s successful launch of GHOSt 1 and 2 aboard the SpaceX Transporter 7 rideshare mission in April. With three GHOSt satellites in orbit, OSK’s capabilities for delivering enhanced monitoring and intelligence services for its customers are further enhanced.
Each GHOSt satellite is capable of capturing 512 spectral bands across the visible to shortwave infrared region (VSWIR, 400 - 2500 nm) at 8m (HSI) and 3m (panchromatic) GSD and the company’s combined GHOSt constellation offers a revisit rate of up to daily for most locations around the globe. This advanced imaging capability supports OSK's Spectral Intelligence® Global Monitoring Application (SIGMA®) platform, which provides access to OSK’s data archive, analytics engine, and intelligent satellite tasking system for commercial and governmental applications.
“This latest launch further delivers on OSK’s mission objectives, including operation of the most powerful hyperspectral constellation on the market. GHOSt-3 will further accelerate our delivery of insights and intelligence products to commercial, government, and scientific entities for swift, informed decisions while further enabling their sustainability and security efforts across the world,” said Dan Katz, CEO, Orbital Sidekick, “Thanks to breakthrough technology, a collaborative approach with the energy industry, and wide-ranging applications, we’re already creating a sizable impact.”
OSK is continuing to foster partnerships with seven of the ten largest pipeline operators in North America, including Williams, ONEOK, Energy Transfer, and Colonial Pipeline Co. (CPC). OSK also has a continued partnership with the intelligent Pipeline Integrity Program (iPIPE), which supports emerging technologies for improved pipeline integrity and leak detection, as well as the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. OSK was also named a winner of the SEAL Sustainable Innovation Award in May 2023, which recognizes innovations that are powering a more sustainable future.
Further, the company has government contracts in place to supply hyperspectral data to the United States Department of Defense through its partnerships with In-Q-Tel, the Air Force, and Space Force. In March, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) selected OSK for its latest focus area study of commercial space-based hyperspectral imaging (HSI) capabilities under the agency’s Strategic Commercial Enhancements (SCE) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), further strengthening OSK’s relationship with the defense and intelligence communities.
“This launch will significantly broaden OSK’s operational monitoring and data gathering scope, especially for environmental management applications,” said Tushar Prabhakar, COO, Orbital Sidekick, “Data from our satellites will be critical in helping global organizations closely monitor emissions, water levels, gas leaks, oil spills, soil composition, forest biodiversity and crop health in unprecedented detail and at faster speeds.”
Today, OSK’s market-leading sensing capabilities will provide enhanced data sets to enable its customers to make vital decisions with expansive coverage, rapid revisit times, leading-edge spatial resolution, and greater spectral capability than any competing service.
About Orbital Sidekick
Orbital Sidekick’s proprietary analytics platform and hyperspectral payload architecture provide persistent space-based monitoring solutions powered by Spectral IntelligenceTM. This unique radiometric speciation and change detection capability enables unparalleled target monitoring services for both commercial and defense users on a global scale. For more information on Orbital Sidekick’s global persistent monitoring services, please visit www.orbitalsidekick.com.
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