The previous Ikonos satellite and its Athena booster broke up and fell into the Pacific Ocean last April when the rocket’s satellite covering failed to drop off during launch. The resulting extra weight was too heavy for the Athena upper stage to place into Earth orbit.
The September launch is an important one for Lockheed Martin. In addition to making the Athena 2 booster, the aerospace company holds a stake in Space Imaging, a private company which owns and will operate the Ikonos satellite.
The September launch will be significant for three reasons.
First is the payload. The two Ikonos satellites contain identical optical imagery systems capable of one meter (three feet) spatial resolution. Government and military spacecraft were the only satellites with this capability previously, space experts and analysts have said.
Second is the fact that this is a precursor to the scheduled fall 2000 launch in Alaska of a NASA satellite aboard an Athena. The launch is scheduled to take place from the Kodiak Island spaceport. If successful, the launch would mark the first orbital flight conducted from Alaska.
The third significance of the September launch is that it makes the Athena the most flexible launch vehicle in the U.S. because it now has four locations it can launch from: Vandenberg, Alaska, Cape Canaveral and Wallops Island. No other vehicle can launch from more than two hard-surface facilities.
The Athena rocket for the September Ikonos mission is currently sitting atop Space Launch Complex 6 at the southern end of Vandenberg base, undergoing checkout for the launch.
The optics on Ikonos will be capable of taking pictures of individual aircraft, buildings, troop movements and vegetation but not people. The imaging products from the satellite will be sold for urban planners, agriculture and forestry needs, and environmental assessments.
Foreign defense-related uses are also possible for the satellite’s photography, some have suggested.
Space Imaging, based in Colorado, also sells data and imagery products from the Indian Earth resource satellite series, which have been among the most advanced remote sensing systems commercially available.
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