Ten commercial Earth-imaging satellites have been launched into space from California. An Orbital ATK Minotaur C rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 2:37 PM on 31st October.
The deployment was to occur about 12 minutes later during a communications blackout period. Confirmation of deployment was expected about an hour and a half after launch, according to the Orbital ATK webcast.
The six Sky Sat satellites and four miniature Dove satellites - each about the size of a loaf of bread - were bound for orbits 310 miles (500 kilometres) above the Earth to join dozens of other satellites that provide streams of data to San Francisco-based Planet Labs Inc.
The satellites are designed to gather medium- and high-resolution multispectral images of Earth for businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations.
