[SatNews] DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) has announced its plans to accelerate the launch of WorldView-4, previously named GeoEye-2, to mid-2016 to meet demand from DigitalGlobe’s Direct Access and other commercial customers.
Artistic rendition of the former GeoEye-2, now WorldView-4 satellite.
Image courtesy of Lockheed Martin.
A significant catalyst for this increased opportunity was the U.S. Department of Commerce’s recent decision to allow DigitalGlobe to sell imagery with resolution of up to 25 centimeters.
“As a result of the U.S. Government’s recent decision to allow us to sell our highest quality imagery, we’ve seen sufficient demand that justifies the accelerated launch of WorldView-4,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, President and Chief Executive Officer of DigitalGlobe. “This will extend our industry leadership, capture more of our customers’ mapping and monitoring missions, provide an even stronger foundation on which to grow our Geospatial Big Data™ and analytic capabilities, and uniquely address pressing global challenges. By placing this asset on orbit where it can generate revenue rather than storing it on the ground, we will improve returns and create shareowner value.”
DigitalGlobe now plans to launch WorldView-4 in mid-2016, providing their customers with assured access to 30 centimeter resolution imagery, the highest resolution imagery commercially available. WorldView-4 will serve an expanding addressable market for high resolution imagery at 30 centimeters, and the decision to accelerate its launch is supported by demand from DigitalGlobe’s existing customer base and is expected to be accretive to returns. Together with WorldView-3, which will launch in August, and the rest of DigitalGlobe’s constellation, WorldView-4 will extend the company’s lead in resolution, accuracy, spectral diversity, revisit rate, and other aspects of imagery quality so critical to the missions of DigitalGlobe’s various customers.
For further information, please visit the DigitalGlobe infosite at http://www.digitalglobe.com/