RapidEye, who owns and operates their own constellation of Earth observation (EO) satellites, now has a partnership with the Moscow based company Sovzond, who will be the only distributor of RapidEye satellite imagery for markets in Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uszbekistan, Kyrgystan, and Turkmenistan.

The agreement was signed this week between Mr. Vladimir I. Mikhaylov, Sovzond's Director General, and RapidEye's CEO, Wolfgang G. Biedermann. RapidEye will mark the start of its commercial operation in Russia at the III International Conference Remote Sensing – the Synergy of High Technologies. The conference will be held on April 15 - 17, 2009 in Moscow, and RapidEye will give a presentation, show imagery samples and demonstrate how RapidEye imagery and services can be combined with projects. Currently, RapidEye is working on completing its worldwide network of distributors in order to facilitate their customers easy access to RapidEye products in their own language and region.

(Photo, courtesy of RapidEye, is of Venice, Italy, captured by RapidEye 4)