Orbital Imaging Corporation
(ORBIMAGE) announced today that it has modified its license arrangement with
MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) that previously provided ORBIMAGE
with exclusive worldwide distribution rights for imagery from the RADARSAT-2
satellite scheduled for launch in 2003.
Under the terms of the new agreement,
ORBIMAGE will retain the exclusive distribution rights for RADARSAT-2 imagery
to customers in the United States, the largest market in the world, and the
worldwide satellite capacity necessary to service this market.
ORBIMAGE will
return license rights to customers in other parts of the world to MDA.
This
new agreement will have the effect of reducing ORBIMAGE’s financial obligation
to MDA and will permit ORBIMAGE to focus its marketing and sales efforts in
the United States, its highest priority market.
ORBIMAGE is a leading global provider of Earth imagery products and
services, with a planned constellation of five digital remote sensing
satellites. The company currently operates the OrbView-1 atmospheric imaging
satellite (launched in 1995), the OrbView-2 ocean and land multispectral
imaging satellite (launched in 1997), and a worldwide integrated image
receiving, processing and distribution network. Currently under development,
ORBIMAGE’s OrbView-3 and OrbView-4 high-resolution satellites will offer one-
meter panchromatic and four-meter multispectral digital imagery.
OrbView-4
will also offer the world’s first commercial hyperspectral satellite imagery.
ORBIMAGE is also the U.S. distributor of imagery from the Canadian RADARSAT-2
satellite.
ORBIMAGE currently offers one-meter high-resolution panchromatic imagery
of major U.S. and non-U.S. urban areas through its OrbView Cities catalog,
available at http://www.orbimage.com . In addition, ORBIMAGE distributes
satellite imagery from SPOT Image, RADARSAT International and Russia’s two-
meter satellite program. ORBIMAGE also offers the SeaStar Pro Fisheries
Information Service, which provides fish finding maps derived from OrbView-2
ocean imagery to fishing customers worldwide.
