GeoEye

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GeoEye
Type Public (NASDAQ: GEOY)
Founded 2006
Headquarters Dulles, Virginia, United States
Key people Matthew O'Connell, CEO
Revenue $121,000,000 USD
Employees 295
Website GeoEye.com

GeoEye is a commercial satellite imagery company, formed in 2006 following the acquisition of Space Imaging by ORBIMAGE. GeoEye provides 1-meter satellite imaging to the public, but also receives a significant portion of its income from contracts with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

GeoEye also provides 253 million square kilometers of satellite map images to Microsoft and Yahoo! search engines.

GeoEye's headquarters are in Dulles, Virginia. Satellite Operations are conducted in Dulles, Virginia and in Thornton, Colorado. Locations in Saint Louis, Missouri, and Norman, Oklahoma provide additional image processing. There are multiple ground stations located worldwide.

GeoEye's primary competitors are DigitalGlobe and Spot Image.

Contents

[edit] Satellites

GeoEye operates its own fleet of imaging satellites, which provide visible and near-infrared images of land and sea at resolutions below 1 meter.

[edit] IKONOS

Main article: IKONOS

Launched in 1999 by Space Imaging, IKONOS collects 0.82-meter panchromatic and 3.2-meter multispectral data at a rate of over 2,000 square kilometers per minute. IKONOS orbits the Earth every 98 minutes at an altitude of approximately 680 kilometers or 423 miles. It travels a sun-synchronous orbit, passing a given longitude at 10:30 AM local time. IKONOS is operated out of Thornton, Colorado.

[edit] ORBVIEW-3

Launched in 2003 by ORBIMAGE, OrbView-3 acquires 1-meter panchromatic and 4-meter multispectral imagery in an 8-kilometer-wide swath. The satellite collects up to 210,000 square kilometers of imagery each day. It revisits each location on Earth in less than three days with the ability to collect data up to 50 degrees off nadir. Similar to IKONOS, this satellite passes a given longitude at 10:30 AM local time. OrbView-3 is operated out of Dulles, Virginia.

GeoEye, Inc.'s OrbView-3 satellite is currently not engaged in imagery operations due to technical problems which are believed to involve the camera electronics. The satellite began to experience a problem affecting its image quality on Sunday, March 4, 2007.

On April 23, 2007 GeoEye, Inc. filed a Form 8-K to announce that its OrbView-3 satellite is permanently out of service. Though GeoEye remains in control of the satellite, it no longer produces usable imagery.[1][2]

[edit] ORBVIEW-2

Launched in 1997 by ORBIMAGE, OrbView-2 collects color imagery of the Earth's entire land and ocean surfaces on a daily basis. Commercial fishing vessels use OrbView-2 data for detecting oceanographic conditions used to create fishing maps. The satellite also provides broad-area coverage in 2,800 kilometer-wide swaths, which are routinely used in naval operations, environmental monitoring, and global crop assessment applications. OrbView-2 carries NASA's SeaWiFS sensor. OrbView-2 is operated out of Dulles, Virginia.

[edit] GeoEye-1

On 2004-12-01 General Dynamics C4 Systems announced it had been awarded a contract worth approximately $209 million to build the OrbView-5 satellite.[3] The satellite, now known as GeoEye-1, is scheduled for launch August 22, 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Delta II launch vehicle.[4] It will provide 41 cm panchromatic and 1.65 meter multispectral imagery in 15.2km swaths. This satellite will also pass a given longitude at 10:30 AM local time, and will be able to image up to 60 degrees off nadir. GeoEye-1 will be operated out of Dulles, Virginia.

[edit] Aerial imagery

GeoEye expanded into aerial imagery in March 2007, with the purchase of MJ Harden from General Electric Company.[5] MJ Harden, based in Mission, KS, is now a wholly owned subsidiary that operates two aircraft that carry a digital mapping camera (DMC) and a sophisticated LiDAR imaging system.

[edit] Regional affiliates

[edit] References

  1. ^ OrbView 3 Satellite Malfunctions
  2. ^ SEC Form 8-K Regarding Orbview-3 Technical Problem
  3. ^ General Dynamics to Build Satellite to Improve U.S. Government Access to High-Resolution Earth Imagery. GD.
  4. ^ GeoEye-1 Launch Details. GeoEye.
  5. ^ GeoEye Acquires MJ Harden Aerial Business From GE Oil & Gas

[edit] External links

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