Ikonos

The first high resolution commercial imaging satellite. It carried a 1-m resolution panchromatic camera and a 4-m resolution color imager, with a 13 km swath width. Built on an LM-900 bus. 6 MR-103G 0.1N thrusters for attitude control.

Typical orbit: 680 km x 690 km at 98.1 deg. Mass: 726 kg (1,600 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Athena-2.

• 1999 April 27 - Ikonos 1 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Athena-2. FAILURE: Payload shroud failed to separate four minutes after launch.

  Tracking stations downrange did not pick up the spacecraft. It was later determined that the rocket nose fairing failed to separate four minutes after launch. The extra mass caused the vehicle to reenter over the South Pacific on the first partial orbit. Space Imaging's Ikonos 1 was to have been the first commercial imaging satellite with a high a resolution camera.

• 1999 September 24 - Ikonos - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Athena-2. Mass: 726 kg (1,600 lb). Perigee: 678 km (421 mi). Apogee: 679 km (421 mi). Inclination: 98.20 deg.

  Commercial / civilian high resolution (1 metre resolution) photograhic satellite.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Report (Internet Newsletter), Harvard University, Weekly, 1989 to Present. Essential internet newsletter recording worldwide weekly space events. Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.