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October 15, 2008, 12:45 PM ET
A New Satellite Opens Its Eye and Sees Kutztown University
A detail of the GeoEye-1 photograph of the Kutztown U. campus. (GeoEye image)
A brand-new commercial satellite with a high-resolution camera snapped its first picture last week — a view of Kutztown University, in Pennsylvania, from 423 miles up.
The new satellite, GeoEye-1, was launched last month and cost $502-million. Although it is sponsored by Google, which will use its images in Google Maps and Google Earth, the satellite’s main customer will be the U.S. government’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, according to Wired Science. The satellite’s cameras are capable of picking up items as small as about 16 inches across, but a government rule will prevent GeoEye from selling such detailed images commercially. The company will, however, be able to market images showing items as small as about 20 inches across.
Why Kutztown? “When we opened the camera door at noon on October 7 and looked down on the Earth 423 miles below, the school was underneath us,” said Mark E. Brender, GeoEye’s vice president for communications and marketing, in an e-mail message to The Washington Post. “It is truly our first image.” —Lawrence Biemiller
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