Washington, DC – Jan 2, 1998 – EarthWatch ground stations have reported receiving new signals from the orbiting Earlybird 1 satellite, SpaceCast learned late Dec. 31th. The satellite was out of contact with the ground for several days following its launch Dec. 25th.
Industry officials report the satellite's builder, Ball Aerospace, was
working the problem of the spacecraft's transmitters, and was optimistic
that a permament fix would be found. The troubleshooting would continue
through the craft's orbital checkout phase, now underway.
Earlybird-1 is the first launch of a commercial, private remote sensing
satellite system with panchromatic and multispectral imagery capability in
black and white and color. The satellite's cameras are the most advanced
now flying on a commercial, non-U.S. government spacecraft.
