QuickBird De-Orbited
- European Space Imaging
European Space Imaging announced today that on Tuesday 27 January 2015, after 13 years of excellent performance, QuickBird approached its end of mission smoothly and, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “re-entered the earths’ atmosphere at 01:59 UTC”.
DigitalGlobe confirms: “QuickBird de-orbited successfully. QuickBird was on orbit for more than 13 years, far exceeding its designed mission life. The satellite made over 70,000 trips around the Earth, contributing substantially to DigitalGlobe’s unmatched imagery catalog, and thus our understanding of our changing planet. Many thanks to our customers and partners for their support of a very successful mission. Imagery from QuickBird — as well as the rest of the DigitalGlobe constellation — can be still purchased from our imagery catalog.”
European Space Imaging will continue providing QuickBird imagery from their archive as well as taking new collection orders from the sibling satellites in the DigitalGlobe constellation.
Related Stories

GEOSeries: Turning Satellite Data into Actionable Intelligence for Critical Energy Infrastructure
See how satellite imagery can make critical infrastructure monitoring more frequent, targeted and efficient. Monitoring hundreds or thousands of kilometres of pipelines, power lines and other critical infrastructure traditionally requires extensive field inspections, vehicle patrols or aerial surveys. Satellite-based monitoring offers a different approach: regularly analysing large networks, identifying potential risks and directing teams to the locations that require attention.

Gallery: Wildfires Across Europe in August 2026
The first week of August brought heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires. Here are satellite images showing the destruction.

VHR Satellite Images for Wildfire Monitoring
High temperatures are breaking records, vegetation is drying up, and catastrophic wildfires are raging across Europe. Emergency responders are already turning to satellite imagery for fire monitoring and damage analysis – but few know its full potential. Near Real-Time (NRT) capabilities deliver critical images just 15 minutes after collection. Intraday imaging captures a fire as it develops throughout the day. And 8-band multispectral imagery lets responders see through haze, light fog, and other atmospheric conditions – including wildfire smoke itself.

Earth Observation Turns Ecological Targets into Measurable Outcomes: How Satellite Imagery Supports Compliance with Europe’s Nature Restoration Regulation
The EU’s Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) entered into force in 2024 and set legally binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems across Europe. With National Restoration Plans due in September 2026, Member States face an urgent question: how do you map, plan and monitor restoration across millions of hectares in a consistent, verifiable way? Earth Observation (EO) – and Very High Resolution (VHR) multispectral satellite imagery in particular – is increasingly the answer.