Kodak's Remote Sensing Camera Begins New Era of Earth Imaging

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--The April 27 launch of Space Imaging's IKONOS 1 commercial remote sensing satellite, and the deployment of its Kodak-designed and built digital camera system, begins a long-awaited era of one-meter-resolution Earth imaging.

The satellite's camera will be able to distinguish ground features as small as one meter in size from a near-polar orbit 400 miles above the Earth. This powerful remote sensing system is expected to change the way industry and scientists "see" the Earth's surface and help how they plan for its future.

The "eyes" of the satellite -- Kodak's on-board imaging sensors -- capture imagery across an 11-km path of the Earth*s surface. Once this image is obtained, Kodak's Digital Processing Unit compresses and formats the digital imagery for transmission to ground stations located throughout the world. IKONOS also carries a 4-meter resolution multi-spectral imaging sensor.

The resulting images will reveal aspects of the Earth's surface previously invisible to the human eye via satellite photo.

Denver-based Space Imaging is a privately held company and is a leading supplier of space imagery, aerial photography, mapping services, and derivative geographic information products and services. Customers can expect to be able to purchase high-resolution imagery and imagery products from Space Imaging approximately 60-90 days after the launch of IKONOS.