Artist's concept of QuickBird. Photo: EarthWatch

A commercial eye-in-the-sky with better vision than any other Earth imaging satellite will be lofted into space by a Boeing Delta 2 rocket this fall, officials announced Thursday.

The QuickBird 2 satellite will ride into a sun-synchronous orbit around Earth's poles atop a stripped down, two-stage Delta 2 rocket fitted with just three solid rocket boosters. Liftoff is scheduled for October from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

EarthWatch Inc. will use the craft to snap the highest resolution images of Earth's surface available on the commercial market.

Built by Ball Aerospace, QuickBird 2 is expected to generate black and white pictures that show objects as small as two feet across (61 centimeters).

The satellite was originally designed to provide 3-foot (1-meter) resolution from an orbit 373 miles (600 km) above the planet. But EarthWatch has decided to lower the target altitude to 280 miles (450 km) to improve the resolution.

The color images would be improved from 13.2-foot to 8.25-foot resolution (4-meters to 2.5-meters).

"Once operational, our QuickBird 2 will become the highest resolution commercial satellite in the world, enabling us to provide our customers with the highest quality imagery and information products available," said Herb Satterlee, president and CEO of EarthWatch.

EarthWatch says QuickBird 2's design enables it to operate properly at the lower altitude and carries enough fuel for periodic reboosting to counter orbital drag. Its mission life of five years won't be reduced either.

"This plan not only provides significant potential for our customers but also addresses the needs of our stakeholders," Satterlee said. "We have been able to fully finance this plan and look forward to establishing ourselves as the leader in the high-resolution market place."

Officials say QuickBird 2 shouldn't face a rival satellite with such resolution until at least 2004.

There are several commercial Earth-imaging satellites in orbit today. They offer imagery for mapping, environmental monitoring, land management, agricultural science studies and disaster response.

"The utility of the higher resolution imagery is extraordinary. By increasing the spatial resolution and accuracy of the imagery collected by QuickBird, we will uniquely address image information markets with an unparalleled product offering," said Satterlee.

A Boeing Delta 2 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex-2 West at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Photo: Thom Baur/Boeing

EarthWatch has launched two previous satellites -- EarlyBird and QuickBird 1 -- which were quickly lost. EarlyBird malfunctioned shortly after arriving in space in late 1997; QuickBird 1 was destroyed in a launch failure last November. Both were flown on Russian rockets.

Hoping to turn its luck around, the Longmont, Colorado-based company turned down opportunities to launch the 2,100 pound QuickBird 2 on foreign rockets and instead chose the American Delta 2.

"Given the importance of this launch to our company, we selected the Delta 2 because of its outstanding launch record," said Satterlee.

"We were able to offer them a reliable rocket and for a good price," Boeing spokesman Robert Villanueva said.

The Delta 2 is currently on a string of 39 consecutive successful launches dating back to 1997. In all, the workhorse rocket has flown 94 times with only two failures.

"The entire Delta team shares the excitement with EarthWatch in this momentous launch of their newest satellite," said Jay Witzling, Boeing's vice president and deputy program manager of Delta programs.