Say a Farewell to QuickBird

In case our readers have not heard the news, here is the most recent official update from DigitalGlobe about the status of the high-resolution satellite, QuickBird, launched in 2001:

DigitalGlobe confirms that QuickBird has de-orbited successfully. QuickBird was on orbit for more than 13 years, far exceeding its designed mission life. The satellite made over 70,000 trips around the Earth, contributing substantially to DigitalGlobe’s unmatched imagery catalog, and thus our understanding of our changing planet. We’d like to thank our customers and partners for their support of a very successful mission. Imagery from QuickBird — as well as the rest of our constellation — can be still purchased from our imagery catalog.

If you have any questions about the statement above, please do not hesitate to email us at sales@apollomapping.com.

After more than 13 years in space, QuickBird collected its last image on December 17, 2014 over South Africa. I have not pulled this out of the archive for quite some time as I am unsure when it was collected but this 60-cm color QuickBird image of McMurdo Station in Antarctica has long been one of my favorites. Farewell QuickBird, it was a good ride.