A leading provider of satellite and geospatial information, Satellite Imaging Corporation, announced that on August 22, 2008 GeoEye Inc. has scheduled a launch date for its next-generation, earth imaging satellite GeoEye-1. In an amendment to the Launch Service Agreement that was signed on May 7, 2008, Boeing Launch Services and GeoEye finalized this launch date.

GeoEye-1 remains at GeoEye's prime contractor and integrator for the satellite bus and telescope, the Gilbert, Ariz. facility of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. In time to support the August launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta II vehicle, the satellite will be shipped in early July to Vandenberg Air Force Base.

"This contract amendment is an important step on the road to launch. The satellite was completed on budget, without any change orders which often increase costs. We have and will continue to conduct exercises, rehearsals, training and other risk-reduction measures to support the new launch date of August 22, 2008", declared, GeoEye's chief operating officer, Bill Schuster.

With virtually a 100-percent mission success record, GeoEye assembled a team of contractors. ITT's Space Systems Division (Rochester, NY) built the sensor or camera. A United Launch Alliance Delta II launch vehicle provided by Boeing Launch Services (Huntington Beach, Calif.) will lift the GeoEye-1 into a near-polar orbit.

With the current overload of orders for high-resolution satellite image data for the IKONOS Satellite Sensor and other high-resolution < 1m satellites around the globe. President of Houston based Satellite Imaging Corporation, a Value Added Reseller of GeoEye Imaging products, Leopold J. Romeijn, declared: "The addition of the GeoEye-1 satellite sensor will provide relief and a greater capacity to deliver mono and stereo image data for many customers around the world requiring high quality 2D and 3D Geospatial Image data for various Industry applications".