[SatNews] Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] is making steady progress in a key test phase on...

...GeoEye’s (NASDAQ: GEOY) next-generation, high-resolution imaging satellite, GeoEye-2, as IKONOS, the world’s first commercial remote sensing spacecraft marks 13 years of outstanding services for GeoEye’s customers around the globe. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company is developing GeoEye-2 under a fixed-price contract with GeoEye. The satellite is currently in the midst of Baseline Integrated System Test (BIST), an extensive test designed to characterize the performance of the integrated satellite and establish a performance baseline prior to entering environmental testing. Later this year, spacecraft environmental testing will validate the overall satellite design, quality of workmanship and survivability during space vehicle launching and on-orbit operations.

Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services will be prepared for a planned launch for GeoEye-2 aboard an Atlas V rocket in 2013. Once operational, GeoEye-2 will be the world’s highest resolution commercial satellite, providing highly accurate images to intelligence analysts, warfighters, and decision makers across the globe.

Last month, the Lockheed Martin built-IKONOS satellite surpassed 13 years of successful on-orbit operations. Launched Sept. 24, 1999, the satellite has collected the world's largest archive of commercial, high-resolution Earth imagery. IKONOS continues to perform with outstanding results, collecting 0.82m resolution black-and-white imagery while simultaneously collecting just better than four-meter resolution multispectral data. These map-accurate images are used for applications in land management, environmental monitoring, local and regional government, national security, disaster relief, news gathering, and many other geospatial applications.