Competition in the commercial remote sensing satellite market will increase sharply because of the launch of the Ikonos satellite and moves by rival Orbimage to boost its market access.
Orbimage and Radarsat International of Canada have signed an agreement which appoints Orbimage principal distributor of Radarsat 1 images in the USA. The Orbital Sciences subsidiary distributes Radarsat 2 images and those from its own satellites, the French Spot spacecraft, plus Russia's former military Spin 2 satellite.
Orbimage and Spot Image have signed a five-year agreement allowing the French company distributorship of high-resolution panchromatic and multispectral imagery from the yet to be launched Orbviews 3 and 4. The minimum value of the deal is $35 million, consisting of $29 million in purchase guarantees and about $6 million for ground station upgrades.
Against the background of Orbimage's activities, the launch last month of the high-resolution Ikonos satellite by Space Imaging will be a boost for the company following the launch failure of its first satellite earlier this year.
• Russia's NPO Mashinostroeniya is developing a small commercial radar-imaging satellite derived from Cold War-era technology. The 800kg (1,750lb) Condor would be launched into an 800km sun-synchronous orbit, funds permitting.
Source: Flight International
