Having already won the competition to launch one commercial Earth-imaging satellite, the Atlas 5 rocket has been picked by the rival spacecraft company to deploy its bird too.

Atlas 5 boosters will launch both next-generation craft in the coming years from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

WorldView artwork. Credit: Ball Aerospace

The first mission was announced last September by Dulles, Virginia-based GeoEye, Inc., to launch the GeoEye 2 spacecraft in 2012. The new deal announced Tuesday will carry the WorldView 3 craft into orbit in 2014 for operator DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colorado.

Both satellites follow earlier ones launched atop Delta 2 rockets from Vandenberg. But as that venerable rocket heads into an uncertain future with no further launches planned beyond this autumn, the bigger Atlas is capturing new business.

Atlas 5 has performed nine commercial missions since 2002 and these two Earth-imaging launches join the rocket's large manifest of government payloads.

A 401-configuration of the Atlas 5 vehicle will be used for both the GeoEye 2 and WorldView 3 missions to reach sun-synchronous orbits covering the planet from pole to pole.

This most-basic version of the rocket includes the kerosene-fueled first stage that won't have any strap-on solid motors and a Centaur upper stage equipped with a single cryogenic engine.

"We are gratified by DigitalGlobe's recognition of the overall value and unsurpassed reliability of the Atlas launch services solution. Our commitment to the accuracy and timeliness of the delivery and our dedication to the criticality of the mission match the needs and expectations of DigitalGlobe and its customers," Jack Zivic, general manager of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, said in a statement about Tuesday's announcement.

United Launch Alliance performs the Atlas flight operations while Lockheed Martin oversees the commercial management of the two missions.

An Atlas 5 just like this one will launch both GeoEye 2 and WorldView 3. Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance

GeoEye and DigitalGlobe are competitors in the market to sell high-resolution imagery to U.S. national security analysts, as well as urban planners, real estate developers, oil and gas firms, environmental interests and even online sites like Google Earth.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last year awarded 10-year contracts to GeoEye for $3.8 billion and DigitalGlobe for $3.5 billion to provide sharp-eyed imagery to the U.S. government for intelligence-gathering, military planning and natural disaster response.

Those deals were crucial in spurring commercial development of these upcoming satellites to further expand and enhance the firms' orbiting imaging capabilities.

"The need for up-to-date satellite imagery and the insights it provides to our government and commercial customers grows every day," DigitalGlobe Chairman and CEO Jill Smith said in a statement.

DigitalGlobe says it expects to spend $650 million on the WorldView 3 satellite project and ground system upgrades.

"We are significantly enhancing our commercial satellite constellation with WorldView 3, and are delighted to name Lockheed Martin and its United Launch Alliance subcontractor as our launch services partners. Their teams have consistently demonstrated the highest degree of reliability on many important space missions. We are confident that our own mission with them will be a success," Smith said in Tuesday's statement.

Lockheed Martin is building GeoEye 2 and Ball Aerospace is leading WorldView 3.