California Launch
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A high-resolution commercial imaging satellite was launched into space aboard a Boeing Delta Two rocket today.
The Quick-Bird satellite, owned by Digital-Globe of Longmont, Colorado, lifted off at 11:51 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Confirmation that the satellite was properly deployed in orbit is not expected until later in the afternoon.
A spokesman for Boeing Expendable Launch Systems calls the launch “picture perfect.´´
The launch is the latest in sometimes troubled efforts by companies seeking to grab chunks of a developing market for images of Earth´s surface made by satellites with detail approaching that of spy spacecraft.
