GeoEye-1: Next-Generation Satellite Confirmed for Launch

GeoEye's Next-Generation Satellite Confirmed for Launch on Sept. 4, 2008.

GeoEye, Inc. announced today the Air Force 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base has approved the September 4 launch date for GeoEye-1 clearing the way to complete final preparations for launch.

The previously reported retest of a booster range safety antenna was successfully completed on Aug. 14. The next step in the pre-launch sequence is the mating of the GeoEye-1 spacecraft with the Delta II booster, which will occur early next week.

Bill Schuster, GeoEye's chief operating officer said, "We are good to go for launch on September 4. 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-meters or 16 inches for panchromatic (black and white) imagery and multispectral (color) imagery at 1.65-meter resolution. However, due to U.S. Government licensing restrictions, commercial customers will have access to imagery at half-meter ground resolution. The satellite is designed to offer three-meter 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 $500-million contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

For more information about the launch of the GeoEye-1 satellite on Sept. 4, 2008, please visit: http://launch.geoeye.com. To receive timely, ongoing details about the development of GeoEye-1 products and services, sign up at http://launch.geoeye.com/LaunchSite/news/signup.aspx.