Dulles, Virginia July 12, 2004) ORBIMAGE Inc. (“ORBIMAGE”), the Dulles, VA-based satellite imaging company, announced the one-year anniversary of the launch of OrbView-3, its first high-resolution imaging satellite.
Launched on June 26, 2003 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, OrbView-3 orbits 470 km above the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit while collecting imagery of every continent of the Earth’s surface at one-meter resolution in the Panchromatic (black and white) mode, and at four-meter resolution in the Multispectral (color) mode.
ORBIMAGE ORBVIEW-2 “SEAWIFS” SATELLITE OF HURRICANE CHARLEY – This image of Hurricane Charley battering the state of Florida was collected by ORBIMAGE’s OrbView-2 “SeaWiFS” satellite on Friday, August 13th, 2004 at approximately 2:00 pm.
Since its launch, OrbView-3 has flown over 233 million kilometers around the Earth, performed more than 3,100 imaging operations and has collected more than 1.5 million square kilometers of imagery. Calibration and check out of the satellite and ground station was completed in January 2004, and to date ORBIMAGE has activated three ground stations for its international regional distributors.
“On the first anniversary of OrbView-3’s successful launch, we are very proud of our first year achievements,” said Matthew O’Connell, ORBIMAGE’s CEO. “The satellite is performing exceptionally well. We have systematically accomplished all of the planned milestones of our initial operations to become fully operational. With the satellite performing so well, we look forward to continuing the successful and rapid growth of our business in our second year of operations.”
OrbView-3 is the newest high-resolution satellite among those commercially operated. ORBIMAGE currently expects OrbView-3 will have an operational life of 7 years, thus exceeding its 5 year design life. Imagery from the OrbView-3 satellite has many applications including mapping, environmental and agricultural monitoring, land use and land classification, natural disaster assessment, national security and forestry mapping, among others.
Sample images from the OrbView-3 satellite are available for viewing on ORBIMAGE’s website www.orbimage.com. Any images used by print, electronic or broadcast media must be attributed to ORBIMAGE.
About ORBIMAGE:
ORBIMAGE is a leading global provider of Earth imagery products and services, with digital remote sensing satellites and an integrated worldwide image receiving, processing and distribution network. In addition to OrbView-3, ORBIMAGE operates the OrbView-2 ocean and land multispectral imaging satellite. The company also produces value-added imagery products and photogrammetry engineering services at its St. Louis facility. ORBIMAGE distributes its products directly to the U.S. government for national security and related mapping applications. Commercial sales are handled through a worldwide network of value-added resellers, regional distributors, sales agents, and select strategic partners.
For more information about ORBIMAGE, please see our web site at http://www.orbimage.com.
For More Information Contact:
Lisa Andrews (703) 480-7502
Andrews.Lisa@orbimage.com