GeoEye-1 satellite, designed and built by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, has a big job ahead of it after its launch on Thursday, September 4, from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), California. The satellite will be able to see an object the size of home plate on a baseball diamond but also map the location of an object that size to within about nine feet (three meters) of its true location on the surface of the Earth without need for ground control points. Together, GeoEye's IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellites can collect almost one million square kilometers of imagery per day.Geo-Eye-1 is designed to take color images of the Earth from 423 miles (681 kilometers) in space while moving at a speed of about four-and-a-half miles (seven kilometers) per second, making 15 earth orbits per day and collecting imagery with its ITT-built imaging system that can distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as 0.41-meters (16 inches) in size in the panchromatic (black and white) mode.

The 4,300-pound satellite will also be able to collect multispectral or color imagery at 1.65-meter ground resolution. While the satellite will be able to collect imagery at 0.41-meters, GeoEye's operating license from NOAA requires re-sampling the imagery to half-meter resolution for all customers not explicitly granted a waiver by the U.S. Government. The planned launch time is 11:50:57 a.m. PDT (2:50:57 p.m. EDT). A Flight Readiness Review was conducted on August 28, and the launch vehicle, launch range, the GeoEye-1 satellite, and all other program elements are ready for launch.

GeoEye-1 will be lifted into a near-polar orbit by a 12-story-tall United Launch Alliance Delta II 7420-10 configuration launch vehicle.  The launch vehicle and associate support services were procured by Boeing Launch Services. The GeoEye-1 satellite is expected to deploy the spacecraft approximately 58 minutes after liftoff and will reach its proper orbit about 90 minutes after launch. In order to achieve the proper orbit, the launch window will only be open for 84 seconds. Once in orbit, GeoEye-1 will undergo system calibration and testing. The company expects to offer imagery and products to customers in the mid- to late-October timeframe.

With the ability to revisit any location on the globe every three days, and at lesser resolution more frequently, GeoEye-1 will enable customers to receive imagery updates on a regular basis and is ideal for large-scale mapping projects. This capability will benefit a broad array of industries including national defense and intelligence, online mapping, state and local governments, environmental monitoring and land use management, oil and gas, utilities, disaster management, insurance and others. The live Web broadcast can be accessed by visiting the GeoEye Web site.