''GeoEye-1'' is a high-resolution

Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...

owned by

Maxar Technologies Maxar Technologies Inc. is an American space technology company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, United States, specializing in geospatial intelligence, Earth observation, and on-orbit servicing satellites, satellite products, and relate ...

(formerly DigitalGlobe), launched in September 2008. The satellite was acquired in the 2013 purchase of

GeoEye GeoEye Inc. (formerly Orbital Imaging Corporation, or ORBIMAGE) was an American commercial satellite imagery company based in Herndon, Virginia. GeoEye was merged into the DigitalGlobe corporation on January 29, 2013. The company was founded i ...

History

On 1 December 2004,

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

C4 Systems announced it had been awarded a contract worth approximately to build the ''OrbView-5'' satellite. Its sensor is designed by the ITT Exelis. The satellite, now known as ''GeoEye-1'', was originally scheduled for launch in April 2008 but lost its 30-day launch slot to a U.S. government mission which had itself been delayed. It was rescheduled for launch 22 August 2008 from

Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to: * Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name * USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida * Vandenberg S ...

aboard a

Delta II Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas, and sometimes known as the Thorad Delta 1. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family, derived directly from the Delta 3000, and entered service in ...

launch vehicle. The launch was postponed to 4 September 2008, due to unavailability of the Big Crow telemetry-relay aircraft. It was delayed again to 6 September because Hurricane Hanna interfered with its launch crews. The launch took place successfully on 6 September 2008 at 18:50:57 UTC. The ''GeoEye-1'' satellite separated successfully from its

launch vehicle at 19:49 UTC, 58 minutes and 56 seconds after launch.

Specifications and operation

''GeoEye-1'' provides

panchromatic A panchromatic emulsion is a type of photographic emulsion that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, and produces a monochrome photograph—typically black and white. Most modern commercially available film is panchromatic, and the t ...

and multispectral imagery at

nadir The nadir is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface. The direction opposite of the nadir is the zenith. Et ...

in swaths. The spacecraft is in a

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

at an altitude of and an inclination of 98 degrees, with a 10:30 a.m. equator crossing time. ''GeoEye-1'' can image up to 60 degrees off

. It is operated out of Dulles, Virginia. At the time of its launch, ''GeoEye-1'' was the world's highest resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite. ''GeoEye-1'' was manufactured in

Gilbert, Arizona Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. Located southeast of Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, Gilbert is home to 288,128 residents. It is the fifth-most populous municipality in Arizona and is considered a suburb of Phoenix. I ...

, by

and the first image was returned on 7 October of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, which had its logo on the side of the rocket, has exclusive online mapping use of its data. While ''GeoEye-1'' is capable of imagery with details the size of , that resolution was only available to the U.S. government. Google has access to details of . Prior maximum commercial imagery was . The

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to support national se ...

and Google paid a combined for the satellite and upgrades to GeoEye's four ground stations.

2009 anomaly

In December 2009 GeoEye announced it had suspended imagery collections by ''GeoEye-1'' for a few days, citing an irregularity in the downlink antenna. "The irregularity appears to limit the range of movement of ''GeoEye-1'' downlink antenna, which may in turn affect ''GeoEye-1'' ability to image and downlink simultaneously," GeoEye said at a press conference. However, the satellite continued with normal operations shortly thereafter, though with diminished simultaneous imaging-and-downlink capability for non-U.S. clients.

References

External links

''GeoEye-1''
at Digitalglobe.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Geoeye-1 Commercial imaging satellites of the United States Google Spacecraft launched in 2008 Spacecraft launched by Delta II rockets fi:GeoEye#GeoEye 1

History

Specifications and operation

2009 anomaly

See also

References

External links