Space Imaging, the commercial high-resolution remote-sensing satellite imaging company, has released the first black and white panchromatic images taken by the Lockheed Martin-built Ikonos satellite which was launched on 21 September. The picture shows Washington National Airport. The company expects to start selling 1m-resolution black and white, or 4m-resolution colour images, commercially by the end of the year from the satellite's Lockheed Martin/Raytheon/Kodak digital imaging system. Previously images of this quality were only available from military sources.

Source: Flight International