Announcement Made Just Weeks Before Launch of Company’s OrbView-3 Imaging Satellite
ORBIMAGE executives and investors
reacted very positively after the White House released its new policy on
Commercial Remote Sensing yesterday. The policy released by the Bush
Administration replaces that from 1994 from President Clinton and
significantly relaxes restrictions on what capabilities U.S. commercial remote
sensing companies can provide both domestically and internationally with the
goal to maintain this country’s leadership in remote sensing space activities.
As a practical result of the ongoing National Space Policy Review, the new
policy exhorts U.S. Government Agencies to maximize its use of commercial
remote sensing space capabilities to fulfill the imagery needs for military,
intelligence, foreign policy, homeland security and civil uses, and to develop
a long-term, sustainable relationship with the U.S. commercial remote sensing
space industry.
“This timely announcement is good news at ORBIMAGE as we are just weeks
away from launching OrbView-3, our first high resolution imaging satellite,”
said Matt O’Connell, ORBIMAGE’s CEO. “We are grateful the new policy
incorporates many of the changes we sought to help assure ORBIMAGE’s future
viability. Not only will it reinforce our existing partnership with the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), this new policy also helps to
remove uncertainty in the eyes of capital markets as to the extent all
government agencies will partner with ORBIMAGE, and our commercial industry,
for its imagery and mapping needs.”
At the Commercial Satellite and Remote Sensing Symposium in Washington,
D.C. today, ORBIMAGE’s Executive Vice President and CFO, Armand Mancini,
stated, “This new policy helps ORBIMAGE to gain better visibility into future
revenues and provides a solid foundation to build a profitable business
through our expanding relationships with the U.S. Government and international
partners.”
About OrbView-3 Satellite and Imagery:
The spacecraft was developed and built for ORBIMAGE by Orbital Sciences
Corporation at its satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles,
Virginia. OrbView-3 will provide high-resolution imagery from space.
OrbView-3’s high-resolution camera will acquire one-meter resolution
panchromatic (black and white) and four-meter resolution multispectral (color)
imagery. This imagery will be valuable to customers around the world for a
wide-range of commercial, government and consumer applications. With the
ability to image virtually anywhere in the world within three days, ORBIMAGE
has established a global distribution network to produce and deliver basic
imagery as well as high-resolution value-added products.
About ORBIMAGE:
ORBIMAGE is a leading global provider of Earth imagery products and
services, with a planned constellation of four 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. OrbView-3 is currently scheduled for
launch in early June. ORBIMAGE is also the exclusive U.S. distributor of
worldwide imagery from the Canadian RADARSAT-2 satellite, planned for launch
in 2004. ORBIMAGE also offers the SeaStar Fisheries Information Service,
which provides fish finding maps derived from OrbView-2 satellite imagery of
the world’s oceans to fishing customers worldwide.
More information about ORBIMAGE including details about the OrbView-3
satellite can be found at http://www.orbimage.com.
