Posted by John McHale
SUNNYVALE, Calif., 13 March 2010. GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY) selected Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. to build the company's next-generation, high-resolution Earth imaging satellite system known as GeoEye-2. Financial terms are not being disclosed at this time.
Lockheed Martin has begun start-up activities and procurement of long-lead components to support the earliest possible launch date for GeoEye-2. This effort will lead to a contract award for the design, engineering, and manufacturing of the satellite and the associated command and control system.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems designed and built the world's first commercial, high-resolution, Earth-imaging satellite, IKONOS, which has been providing 0.82-meter ground resolution imagery to GeoEye's customers around the globe for more than a decade.
These map-accurate images are used for applications in national security, environmental monitoring, state and local government, disaster assessment and relief, land management, and for many other geospatial applications.
Lockheed Martin's GeoEye-2 solution will offer increased agility, resolution and flexibility over IKONOS and GeoEye-1. This will enable the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide critical geospatial situational awareness and global security information to intelligence analysts, warfighters, and decision makers. Commercial users will also benefit from access to GeoEye-2's map-accurate color imagery. The spacecraft will feature a high-resolution ITT camera that has been in development for more than two years.
"GeoEye and Lockheed Martin have had a long and productive partnership since building and launching the first commercial remote sensing satellite," says Joanne Maguire, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "Our GeoEye-2 solution will leverage our strong government and commercial satellite system expertise and focus on operational excellence and mission success to provide GeoEye with another world-class, high-performance spacecraft for its customers."
"We look forward to working with Lockheed Martin again and eagerly anticipate the construction and successful launch of another cutting-edge satellite which will provide proven reliability and greatly enhanced imaging capabilities for our customers," says Matthew O'Connell, GeoEye's chief executive officer and president.
