Orbital Sidekick Announces Upcoming Launch of its Newest Global Hyperspectral Earth Observation Constellation: GHOSt

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbital Sidekick (OSK) announced today that it has finalized plans to deploy its Global Hyperspectral Observation Satellite constellation known as GHOSt. The hyperspectral imaging (HSI) constellation consists of six 100 kg ESPA class satellites designed and manufactured by Astro Digital, with Maverick Space Systems providing mission integration & management services for the launches on SpaceX's Falcon 9. The custom hyperspectral imaging payload is provided by OSK.

GHOSt leverages OSK's previous experience collecting and analyzing hyperspectral data with its HEIST mission on the International Space Station in 2019. The custom payload will produce the highest resolution commercial hyperspectral imagery launched to-date with a GSD of approximately 8 meters. The payload will be integrated into Astro Digital's Corvus-XL satellite platform and will take advantage of its industry leading Ka-band data downlink capability.

"We're excited to partner with Astro Digital and Maverick Space for this initial constellation. Both companies bring a high degree of agility with proven execution to our mission, allowing OSK to focus on the payload and extracting information from our unique hyperspectral data," said Pete Friedhoff, Director of Space Systems for Orbital Sidekick.

"Persistent, hyperspectral imaging is a critical new capability in remote sensing," said Chris Biddy, Co-founder and CEO of Astro Digital. "We are very pleased to be supporting Orbital Sidekick's mission with our proven satellite technology and capabilities."

Maverick Space Systems will provide mission integration hardware and services to launch GHOSt on SpaceX's Falcon 9 at the end of this year and continuing into 2022. "Taking advantage of frequent low-cost launch opportunities is critical to achieve Orbital Sidekick's constellation. We are excited to partner with them and further reduce their per-satellite launch costs by aggregating two GHOSt satellites per ESPA port," said Roland Coelho, CEO of Maverick Space.

GHOSt will capture more than 400 spectral bands in the visible to shortwave infrared range of 400 - 2500 nm to feed OSK's Spectral Intelligence Global Monitoring Application (SIGMA™) platform.

About Orbital Sidekick
Orbital Sidekick's proprietary analytics platform and hyperspectral payload architecture provide persistent space-based monitoring solutions powered by Spectral Intelligence™. This unique radiometric speciation and change detection capability enables unparalleled target monitoring services for both commercial and defense users on a global scale. Orbital Sidekick is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information on Orbital Sidekick's global persistent monitoring services, please visit orbitalsidekick.com

About Astro Digital
As a holistic offering, Astro Digital currently designs, builds, and operates micro-satellite systems supporting space-based turnkey missions for business applications, including earth observation, communications, In-orbit demonstrations, in addition to various science and exploration applications. Astro Digital is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information on the new CORVUS XL platform or services and technologies available from Astro Digital, visit astrodigital.com.

About Maverick Space
Maverick provides customized, cost effective, and responsive end-to-end launch integration solutions. Maverick's key competencies include mission management, launch deployment hardware, and launch integration services for satellites ranging from 1 kg CubeSats to 400+ kg ESPA class spacecraft. The team at Maverick combines industry experience with agility and efficiency to provide their customers with a seamless, turn-key service in getting their payloads to orbit.  Maverick is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, California. For more information on Maverick's launch hardware and service offerings, please visit maverickspace.com.

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SOURCE Orbital Sidekick