[SatNews] The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) team designing GeoEye's (Nasdaq: GEOY) next-generation, high-resolution imaging satellite, known as GeoEye-2, successfully completed the program's Preliminary Design Review (PDR) three weeks ahead of the planned schedule.

The successful PDR completion validated the spacecraft's design maturity, meeting or exceeding all GeoEye standards and program requirements. During the two-day PDR, representatives from Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company and GeoEye thoroughly reviewed the spacecraft's intricate design and advanced capabilities. With the validation that GeoEye-2 design will meet the critical geospatial information requirements of GeoEye's government and commercial users worldwide, the team is now gearing up for the Critical Design Review scheduled for early 2011, a key milestone that precedes the production phase of the program.

GeoEye-2 will be launched aboard an Atlas V rocket provided by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services and will be operational in early 2013. Once fully operational, GeoEye-2 will be the highest resolution commercial satellite in the world. In addition, it will have significant improvements in performance capabilities, such as enhanced tasking and the ability to collect more imagery at a faster rate. In development under a fixed-price contract with GeoEye to support the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's EnhancedView commercial imagery program, GeoEye-2 will provide intelligence analysts, war fighters, and decision makers map-accurate images at an increased resolution, with a greater spacecraft response rate and level of performance reliability unmatched by existing spacecraft. GeoEye-2 is based on the latest generation of the LMx configure-to-order low Earth orbit bus product line initiated with Lockheed Martin-built IKONOS satellite, and it features a new high-resolution ITT camera that has been in development for more than two years.