Next-Generation Satellite Confirmed for Launch

Bill Schuster, GeoEye's chief operating officer said, "We are good to go for launch on 4th September. We look forward to soon providing the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and our other customers around the globe with the highest resolution and best quality commercial satellite imagery available on the market."

GeoEye-1 will have the highest resolution of any commercial imaging system -- 0.41-metres or 16 inches for panchromatic (black and white) imagery and multispectral (color) imagery at 1.65-metre resolution. However, due to U.S. Government licensing restrictions, commercial customers will have access to imagery at half-metre ground resolution. The satellite is designed to offer three-metre accuracy, which means that end users can map natural and man-made features to within three meters of their actual locations on the surface of the Earth without ground control points. GeoEye-1 was financed in part by GeoEye's approximate USD500 million contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).