WORLDVIEW-3 (WV-3)

WorldView-3 (WV-3) is a commercial high-resolution Earth observation satellite operated by DigitalGlobe and manufactured by Ball Aerospace & Technologies. Carrying NORAD catalog identifier 40115 and international designator 2014-048A, the spacecraft was launched on August 12, 2014, and remains in operation today in a low-altitude sun-synchronous orbit. It is among the most capable commercially operated imaging satellites ever placed in orbit, offering sub-half-meter panchromatic resolution to customers around the world.

Mission and Purpose

WorldView-3's primary mission is commercial Earth observation — the systematic collection of high-resolution imagery of the planet's surface for sale to government agencies, defense and intelligence customers, research institutions, mapping organizations, and private enterprises. The satellite represents a significant step forward in what is legally and commercially available as civilian imagery, pushing resolvable ground detail to finer scales than had previously been offered on the open market.

The spacecraft is capable of collecting imagery across several distinct spectral bands. Its panchromatic channel captures detail at 0.31 meters resolution — meaning features smaller than a foot across can be distinguished in a single pixel. This exceeds the threshold that, for many years, the United States government restricted for commercial sales, and its deployment marked a relaxation of those long-standing licensing constraints. Beyond panchromatic imaging, WorldView-3 collects eight-band multispectral imagery at 1.24 meters resolution, enabling applications such as vegetation analysis, land-use classification, and environmental monitoring that depend on distinguishing how surfaces reflect different wavelengths of visible and near-infrared light.

The satellite also carries a shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging capability at 3.7 meters resolution. SWIR imagery is particularly valuable for penetrating atmospheric haze, detecting mineral composition at the surface, and monitoring wildfire activity or industrial heat signatures. Complementing these imaging systems is the CAVIS instrument — Clouds, Aerosols, Vapors, Ice, and Snow — which collects data at 30 meters resolution to characterize atmospheric conditions at the time of imaging. This atmospheric correction capability allows analysts to more accurately interpret the imagery collected by the primary sensors by accounting for the effects of the intervening atmosphere.

Together, these imaging modes make WorldView-3 a versatile tool for a wide range of remote sensing applications, from precision agriculture and urban planning to disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, and defense-related reconnaissance.

Orbit and Tracking

WorldView-3 occupies a near-circular sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of approximately 616 to 619 kilometers, giving the orbit an eccentricity close to zero — the spacecraft maintains a nearly constant height above the Earth's surface throughout each revolution. Its orbital inclination is 97.9 degrees, slightly retrograde with respect to the Earth's rotation, which is the defining characteristic of sun-synchronous orbits. By precessing at the same rate that the Earth advances in its orbit around the Sun, a sun-synchronous orbit ensures the satellite passes over any given location at roughly the same local solar time on each revisit. This consistency is operationally important for optical imaging: it means shadows, illumination angles, and surface reflectance conditions are broadly comparable between images collected on different dates, simplifying change detection and long-term analysis.

The orbital period is 96.9 minutes, meaning WorldView-3 completes roughly 14 to 15 full revolutions around the Earth every day. At an altitude of approximately 617 to 619 kilometers, the satellite moves at a ground speed that allows its high-resolution sensors to collect imagery of a substantial area during each pass. Combined with the satellite's agile pointing capability — a standard design feature for commercial imaging satellites of this generation — this translates to meaningful daily revisit capacity over areas of interest anywhere on Earth.

Tracking data for WorldView-3 is publicly available through the standard two-line element (TLE) sets distributed by United States Space Force's 18th Space Control Squadron and aggregated on platforms such as LowEarth. The satellite's NORAD ID, 40115, is the key identifier used to retrieve current orbital state vectors. Because its orbit is maintained at a low altitude, atmospheric drag, though minimal, requires periodic station-keeping maneuvers to preserve the intended orbit geometry. These maneuvers can produce observable changes in tracked TLE sets over time.

Design and Operator

WorldView-3 was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies, a Colorado-based aerospace manufacturer with a long history of constructing scientific and commercial spacecraft. Ball Aerospace has produced platforms for a wide variety of missions and is well regarded for its precision optical payload integration work. The specific structural and propulsion details of the WorldView-3 bus are not publicly disclosed at a catalog level, and its mass is not recorded in the public satellite catalog, so no figure is given here.

At the time of launch, the satellite was operated by DigitalGlobe, a United States commercial remote sensing company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. DigitalGlobe had developed a constellation of high-resolution imaging satellites over roughly fifteen years, with WorldView-3 joining a fleet that had grown to include several earlier satellites. That constellation represented a significant commercial and strategic asset, offering some of the finest spatial resolution available outside classified government systems.

DigitalGlobe subsequently merged with MDA, and the combined entity was rebranded as Maxar Technologies. WorldView-3 thus became part of Maxar's operational satellite constellation and remains associated with Maxar's Earth intelligence business, which continues to market imagery from the satellite. The satellite was registered as a United States object, consistent with DigitalGlobe's American ownership and operations.

Significance and Current Status

When it reached orbit in 2014, WorldView-3 was immediately notable for what it could do commercially. The 0.31-meter panchromatic resolution it offered had not previously been available through licensed commercial sales; prior policy had limited commercial operators to 0.5-meter resolution products for the general market. The regulatory decision to allow WorldView-3 to sell at its native resolution reflected a recognition that foreign commercial and governmental imaging capabilities had advanced to a point where maintaining the restriction provided diminishing strategic benefit while hampering American commercial competitiveness.

WorldView-3 joined a constellation that by 2014 had been growing for over a decade. The lineage of DigitalGlobe satellites stretches back to Ikonos, which launched in 1999 as one of the first high-resolution commercial imaging satellites, followed by QuickBird in 2001, WorldView-1 in 2007, GeoEye-1 in 2008, and WorldView-2 in 2009. Each successive satellite generally improved on the resolution, revisit rate, or spectral capability of its predecessors. WorldView-3 represented the most significant capability jump of the series at the time of its launch.

The satellite's SWIR and CAVIS capabilities in particular added dimensions of analysis that go beyond simple visible-light photography. SWIR bands allow analysts to examine surface mineralogy and detect moisture content, capabilities relevant to geological surveys, agricultural monitoring, and environmental impact assessments. The CAVIS system's atmospheric data complement the primary imagery by improving the scientific rigor of surface reflectance measurements, which matters when imagery is used for quantitative analysis rather than purely visual interpretation.

As of the data reflected in the current orbital catalog, WorldView-3 has not decayed or reentered the atmosphere and remains in orbit. No formal end-of-mission declaration is recorded in the public catalog. At its operating altitude of roughly 617–619 kilometers, the satellite is well above the densest part of the upper atmosphere and, absent a major anomaly or deliberate deorbit, is expected to remain operable for an extended period consistent with its design life and remaining propellant margins — details that are not publicly disclosed.

How to Spot It

WorldView-3 is a relatively small satellite at low Earth orbit altitudes, and it does not carry any solar reflectors or unusually large panels that would make it a particularly prominent naked-eye object. Under favorable conditions — passes occurring near dawn or dusk when the satellite is still illuminated by sunlight while the observer is in darkness — it may be visible as a faint, steadily moving point of light. It will not rival the brightness of the International Space Station or large rocket bodies.

To determine whether WorldView-3 will pass over your location, use the current TLE data associated with NORAD catalog ID 40115 available on this page. Satellite tracking tools can compute pass times, maximum elevation, and azimuth based on your geographic coordinates. Passes at higher elevation angles and occurring closer to astronomical twilight are most likely to be visible to the unaided eye. A pair of binoculars will improve the chances of detection on lower-elevation passes.