Boeing will launch Digital Globe’s WorldView-2 satellite aboard a Delta II rocket procured from United Launch Alliance (ULA) today i.e. Thursday 8th October in California. The launch will be broadcast live and in high quality on a dedicated channel, with the feed kicking off at 1115 PDT (1915 BST). WorldView-2 is the first high-resolution 8-band multispectral satellite commercially available. The new bands support greater levels of feature identification and extraction, more accurate change detection, and a realistic mirror image of the world’s natural colors.

If you are wondering what does any of this have to do with Nokia, then read on. In Feburary this year Nokia and Digital Globe had entered into an agreement to bring the real-world perspective of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery to Ovi Maps in order to improve the global driving, hiking and walking navigation capabilities for consumers who use these applications.

The idea behind the integration of Digital Globe’s high-resolution world imagery content is to increase the functionality of Ovi Maps by revealing more details than standard street level mapping views, and also providing peace-of-mind for precision and accuracy in off-road navigation — a feature of special interest to hikers and walkers.

All of this will be done through streamlined technology integration and development of a proprietary format for delivering imagery to Nokia. Users will then have quick, easy and seamless access to a wide range of global high-resolution imagery from DigitalGlobe’s comprehensive ImageLibrary sourced from its high-resolution satellite constellation and aerial network. All of this will in turn help take turn-by-turn, street-by-street and city-to-city navigation views to a new level.