GeoEye-1: Google’s Satellite

What do you buy when you have around $250 million burning a hole in your pocket? Well, you could do a lot worse than Google, which recently celebrated the successful launch of its joint venture satellite called GeoEye-1.

This marks a turning point for satellite-based imaging, up until now no commercially-funded satellite could take photos at resolutions as high or higher than military ‘spy satellites.’ In this case, Google entered a joint venture with GeoEye and a US Government organization called NGA, or the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which in fact will be GeoEye’s #1 customer.

GeoEye’s president, Mark Brender, is careful not to call the bird a spy satellite, though. According to an interview with Wired Science, they will sell images to the private sector at the highest-allowable resolution (50 centimeter), with Google of course being its first (and exclusive) customer.

So in essence, what Google has bought for itself is first dibs on the photos produced by GeoEye. This edge could be crucial, as they will be able to update their commercial mapping imagery faster and with more detail than their rivals (which must wait for what is declassified from military satellites).