INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: GeoEye
Matthew O’Connell
Chief Executive Officer
GeoEye
Q: Please give our readers an overview of GeoEye.
A: GeoEye operates commercial Earth imaging satellites, mapping aircraft, an international network of ground stations and value-added geospatial imagery processing capabilities. Based in Dulles, Va., GeoEye was formed in early 2006 after Orbimage purchased Denver, Colo.- based Space Imaging. GeoEye is the first publicly traded geospatial information provider—we began trading on the Nasdaq exchange last September—and now has 380 employees.
Currently, we fly the high-resolution IKONOS satellite and the lower-resolution OrbView-2 satellite. IKONOS has a resolution of 82 centimeters, and the OrbView-2 satellite a resolution of about 1 kilometer. OrbView-2 is used in the fishing industry to help commercial fisherman locate likely habitats to find the desired species of fish and for scientific research in such fields as climate change. We’ll launch GeoEye-1, which will be the world’s most advanced commercial imaging satellite, in the later half of 2007. We don’t just fly satellites. In March, we purchased M.J. Harden from General Electric. M.J. Harden is a provider of digital aerial imagery and geospatial information located in Mission, Kansas.
Q: What are your target markets and what products do you offer?
A: We are a geospatial information company that offers different levels of imagery and imagery derived products depending upon customer needs—from basic images to highly processed stereo imagery that is very accurate. Some of the markets that use satellite imagery include defense and intelligence, homeland security, air and marine transportation, oil and gas, and insurance and risk management. Our most important customer is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. That agency is partly funding our next-generation commercial imaging satellite and will get highest priority and best possible pricing. We also have an excellent product that shows 3-D imagery of airfields. The mapping search engines are a growing market. We have long term contracts in place with Microsoft Virtual Earth and Yahoo. Oil and gas is an important segment that should grow with our acquisition of M.J. Harden, since that’s one of their specialties.
Q: What you can say about your next-generation system—especially the launch?
A: Our next-generation imaging system is fully funded and slated for launch later this year. GeoEye-1 will be launched aboard a Delta II launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. GeoEye-1 will have the highest resolution of any commercial imaging system—0.41 meters, or 16 inches. It will collect multispectral imagery at 1.65-meter resolution, or about 64 inches. Though it will be able to collect imagery at this highest resolution and provide it to our government customer, we have to resample the imagery for commercial sale to half-meter resolution imagery due to U.S. government licensing restrictions.
We put together a great team to build and launch the satellite. General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems and ITT are building the satellite and camera, and Boeing will launch it. The Delta II is the most reliable launch vehicle in its class.
Q: What are plans for the future imaging systems between GeoEye and the government?
A: We have recently participated in several government studies on the contribution of commercial remote sensing and how it can be better integrated into the way our intelligence community collects, analyzes and distributes imagery and products. There is a lot of hard work and hard thinking going on about this. Our analysis shows that better integration is the obvious way to go, while at the same time being cost-effective for the government. The partnership between the U.S. government and our company is strong and growing and can be the model of future advanced imaging systems and programs.
Q: Your company has done something unique for the remote sensing industry. What can you tell us about the GeoEye Foundation?
A: In March, we announced the formation of the GeoEye Foundation, a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Dulles, Va. The GeoEye Foundation’s mission is to foster the growth of the next generation of geospatial technology professionals. The foundation provides satellite imagery to students and faculty at select educational institutions to advance research in geographic information systems and environmental studies. It also offers select imagery to support non-governmental institutions in their missions of humanitarian support and environmental research. We have already provided imagery to support climate change studies, land use studies over Mexico, city planning studies over Jerusalem and imagery to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund for use in studying the gorilla habitat. We have collected more than 278 million square kilometers of the Earth’s surface—the world’s largest commercial satellite imagery archive—and the foundation helps us put those pixels to use for good causes. ♦