Slashgeo

Orbimage and Space Imaging Are Now "GeoEye"

posted by Satri on Friday January 13, @12:31PM        Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the eyeballs-and-crystal-balls dept.

GISCafé and GISUser have the press release announcing the completion of Space Imaging's acquisition by Orbimage, and the brand name change to GeoEye. From the PR: "GeoEye is the world’s largest commercial satellite imagery company [...] In addition to the above three satellites already in orbit [OrbView-2, OrbView-3 and Ikonos], GeoEye plans to launch a satellite in early 2007 to service a contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)."

Trackbacks:

• NONE
• NONE
• NONE
• NONE
• NONE
• NONE
• NONE
• NONE
• NONE
• NONE

Related Stories

Interview with Mark Brender of GeoEye [+]

GIS Monitor shares an interview with Mark Brender, V.P., Corporate Communications & Marketing for GeoEye. From the interview: "Our reach into the business and consumer market will most likely be done through software, such as Microsoft Virtual Earth and Yahoo! We have solid contracts in place with those search engines. They have a voracious appetite for imagery. Many of the search engines will have base maps for basic imagery, then the race will be on for the most accurate imagery, then for the most current imagery."

Industry: GeoEye Now Listed on Nasdaq [+]

GeoEye, merger of OrbImage and Space Imaging, announced in a press release they'll now be listed on Nasdaq. From the press release: "It reflects the support that GeoEye has received from our investors, without whom we would not have achieved the consolidation earlier this year that created the world’s biggest commercial satellite imagery company." Vector One links to a Geoconnexion International Magazine in-depth article on GeoEye [6-pages pdf, 529k].

GeoEye Loses OrbView-3 and Delays GeoEye-1 [+]

Still catching up last week's stories, All Points Blog offers an important update on GeoEye, which lost OrbView-3 and delays the launch of GeoEye-1. From the blog: "GeoEye would have posted a profit for Q1 but decided to write down the loss of OrbView-3 in the quarter as the earth orbiting satellite was deemed inoperable on April 23rd. The company tried to repair the satellite but to no avail and is now seeking to exercise a $40 million insurance policy on the satellite. [...] GeoEye also announced that it has again been forced to delay the launch of GeoEye-1 due to the high demand for launch facilities at Vandenburg Air Force Base. At this time, the company feels that it is likely that the launch will be delayed two months and forced into some time window between October and December 2007."

GeoEye Scheduled to Launch Next-Generation Earth Imaging Satellite August 22, 2008 1 comment [+]

Dulles,VA-- GeoEye, Inc. (Nasdaq: GEOY), a premier provider of satellite, aerial and geospatial information, announced an August 22, 2008 launch date for its next-generation, earth imaging satellite GeoEye-1. Boeing Launch Services and GeoEye finalized this launch date in an amendment to the Launch Service Agreement that was signed on May 7, 2008.

You can read the full press release at Directions Magazine.

GeoEye-1 Exclusivity Deal with Google 3 comments [+]

Last week the geoblogs mentioned the important exclusivity deal between Google and GeoEye (GeoEye is Space Imaging and OrbImage together, since early 2006). Why important? Because Google already has an exclusivity deal with DigitalGlobe which can cause difficulties to casual buyers. The GEB has a nice summary: "Not only that, as part of the deal, Google's logo is being flown on the side of the rocket. The new satellite is capable of up to .41 meter resolution, but by [U.S.] law Google will be limited to .5 meter/pixel resolution. This is still VERY good resolution, and a bit better than DigitalGlobe's typical .6 meter imagery." APB also offers coverage. The EOPortal informs us on GeoEye-1, to be launched later this week: "[...] the satellite will make 15 earth orbits per day and collect imagery with its ITT-built imaging system that can distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as 0.41-meters (16 inches) in size in the panchromatic (black and white) mode. The 4,300-pound satellite will also be able to collect multispectral or color imagery at 1.65-meter ground resolution. While the satellite will be able to collect imagery at 0.41-meters, GeoEye's operating license from NOAA requires re-sampling the imagery to half-meter resolution for all customers not explicitly granted a waiver by the U.S. Government." See also related stories below. Update: Slashdot now discusses the story.

GeoEye-1 Begins Commercial Operations [+]

The EOPortal informs us GeoEye started commercial operations for the GeoEye-1 earth-imaging satellite. From the press release: "GeoEye-1 imagery products and solutions are now commercially available in half-, one-, two- and four-meter ground resolutions. Imagery products are available in color and black & white. Color imagery comprises four bands: blue, green, red and near-infrared. There are several ways commercial customers can purchase GeoEye-1 imagery. Service Experts are available to assist with the purchasing of GeoEye's imagery products and value-added solutions." See also many previous GeyEye stories below.

• limitations

  (Score:1)

  by palance11 (328) on Monday January 16, @07:03AM (#367)
  ( http://www.piratelaws.com/ )

  does anyone know of any limitations on the imagery made available? There was an article recently on slashdot regarding NASA, and how the US government was able to suppress images NASA had taken of Area 51 (even though that information was clearly available to the soviets + others).

  --
  
  Pirate Laws [piratelaws.com]. The rules for being a pirat
  • Area 51 story on /geo too by Satri (Score:1) Monday January 16, @07:29AM
  • Re:limitations

    (Score:3, Insightful)

    by briancnorton (255) on Tuesday January 17, @02:20PM (#375)

    Not even applicable. Commercial satellite contracts are totally different. First of all, that was a "handheld" camera on skylab. These are commercially available products that the government is buying, therefore they can not be released to the public because the license does not permit it. If you want the commercial imagery that the government buys, you can get it from Digital globe, Space imaging, etc. You just have to buy it.

    [ Parent ]