Satellogic, a California-based startup company, plans to launch the first in a series of satellites in the latter part of 2015, according to company sources.
California startup finalizes plans for first wave of satellites
Satellogic, a California-based startup company, plans to launch the first in a series of satellites in the latter part of 2015, according to company sources.
“We are gearing up to launch the first service constellation of 16 satellites next year,” said Emiliano Kargieman, Satellogic founder and CEO.
Kargieman said his company plans to provide real-time imaging of the Earth on a daily basis. He said the company would eventually accomplish that goal by using as many as 300 smaller satellites.
Kargieman said the company’s initial 16 satellites would start with an initial launch followed by a series of launches of five satellites at a time.
Satellogic launched its third prototype, BugSat 1, aboard a Kosmotras Dnepr rocket in June.
“Mostly, the goal with this satellite was testing the imaging payloads and testing some of the onboard processing that we are doing. So, we’ve been iterating over the last few months on the main payload, on the processing and working on the algorithms that we will deploy next year,” he said.
Satellogic plans to use a resolution at one meter for multispectral imaging, a result of customer feedback.
“I think one-meter is the magic number in satellite imaging where you start to see things that change on a day-to-day basis. That’s what we are aiming for now and based on the feedback that we are getting from customers, that’s the sweet spot where the applications start to make sense,” he said.
Kargieman didn’t name his customers; however, he said they come from industries ranging from agriculture to oil and gas and some government clients.
“Those would be initially some of our focus areas of application,” he said.
