| FOR
INMEDIATE RELEASE
September, 2008
“GeoEye-1
Launched Successfully ”
We are
pleased to announce the successful launch and
deployment of GeoEye-1, the world’s highest
resolution commercial Earth imaging satellite.
GeoEye’s ground station in Norway relayed
the downlink signal it received from GeoEye-1
confirming that the satellite successfully separated
from the second stage of the launch vehicle and
began automatically initializing its onboard systems.
Bill Schuster,
GeoEye chief operating officer said “based
upon the data we saw the satellite is performing
properly and ready to begin the next phase towards
meeting its mission requirements.”
GeoEye-1
will now undergo a calibration and check-out period
before imagery products will be available for
sale.
Matthew O’Connell, GeoEye chief executive
officer, said, “Later this fall, we will
start providing high resolution color imagery
of the Earth from our newest satellite to customers
around the globe. The imagery from GeoEye-1 adds
to the quantity and quality of that currently
provided by our IKONOS satellite, and together
this magnificent constellation will enable us
to meet world-wide customer demand.”
GeoEye-1 will simultaneously collect 0.41-meter
ground resolution black-and-white (panchromatic)
images and 1.65-meter color (multispectral) images.
Designed to take digital images of the Earth from
423 miles (681 kilometers) and moving at a speed
of about four-and-a-half miles (seven kilometers)
per second, the satellite camera can distinguish
objects on the Earth’s surface as small
as 0.41-meter or 16 inches in size. Due to U.S.
licensing restrictions, commercial customers will
get access to imagery at half-meter ground resolution.
GeoEye-1 was built by General Dynamics Advanced
Information Systems in Gilbert , Arizona . The
imaging system was built by ITT in Rochester ,
New York . The 4310-pound satellite was launched
at 11:50 a.m. PDT on a United Launch Alliance
Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base
in California . The launch of GeoEye-1 marks the
83rd consecutive successful launch of the Delta
II rocket.
|
Aeroterra S.A. is a privately
held organization that since its creation
in 1973 has been a leader of the geo-processing
field in the Latin American market. As an
exclusive distributor of ESRI Inc. and LEICA
Geosystems in Argentina and Uruguay, Aeroterra
has an installed base of over 8,000 licenses
in more than 1,000 sites. According to market
researches from the Inter-American Development
Bank (1995) and the Government of Canada
(1997/98), Aeroterra accounts for more than
80% of the GIS software market in Argentina.
The company is composed by a multi-disciplinary
team of professionals fully dedicated to
tasks related to geo-processing using the
most advanced tools available for providing
geo-related solutions to clients throughout
the world. The company has several strategic
alliances with international organizations
and a wide network of distributors and business
partners. |
|