DigitalGlobe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| DigitalGlobe | |
 |
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| Type of Company | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1992 |
| Headquarters |  Longmont, CO USA |
| Website | www.digitalglobe.com |
DigitalGlobe, of Longmont, Colorado, USA, is a privately held commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company offers the world's highest resolution commercial satellite imagery and maintains the most current and accurate content library.[1]
The company was founded in 1992, as WorldView, with a license from the United States Department of Commerce to build a commercial remote sensing satellite. In 1995, the company became EarthWatch Incorporated, merging WorldView with Ball Aerospace's commercial remote sensing operations.[2] In September 2001, EarthWatch became DigitalGlobe.[3]
QuickBird, launched on October 18, 2001,[2] is DigitalGlobe's primary satellite, which was built in partnership with Ball Aerospace and Orbital Sciences. DigitalGlobe plans to launch its next generation of satellites, with WorldView I scheduled for launch in 2007 and WorldView II in late 2008.[4] DigitalGlobe has partnered with Boeing for launch of the WorldView satellites on Delta II.[5]
DigitalGlobe’s customers range from urban planners, to the U.S. federal agencies, including NASA[3] and the United States Department of Defense's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).[6] As well, much of Google Earth and Google Maps high resolution-imagery is provided by DigitalGlobe,[7] as is imagery used in Microsoft's TerraServer.[8] DigitalGlobe's main competitors are GeoEye (formerly Orbimage and Space Imaging) and Spot Image.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Digital Globe - FAQ. Retrieved on 2006-04-19.
- ^ a b Digital Globe - History. Retrieved on 2006-04-19.
- ^ a b Scientific Data Purchase. NASA. Retrieved on 2006-04-19.
- ^ Digital Globe - Imaging Systems. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
- ^ Boeing Selected to Co-Develop and Launch Next DigitalGlobe Imaging Satellite. Boeing. Retrieved on 2006-04-19.
- ^ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Awards $12 Million ClearView Contract to DigitalGlobe (2006, March 16).
- ^ Hafner, Katie and Saritha Rai. "Governments Tremble at Google's Bird's-Eye View", The New York Times, 2005, December 20.
- ^ TerraServer.com - Image Providers. Retrieved on 2006-04-19.
