GeoEye-1 Fact Sheet


Imaging & Collection Specifications

Scheduled Launch Date 2008
Camera Modes
  • Simultaneous panchromatic and multispectral (pan-sharpened)
  • Panchromatic only
  • Multispectral only

 
Resolution 0.41 m / 1.34 ft* panchromatic (nominal at Nadir)
1.65 m / 5.41 ft* multispectral (nominal at Nadir)
Metric Accuracy/Geolocation CE stereo: 2 m / 6.6 ft
LE stereo : 3 m / 9.84 ft
CE mono: 2.5 m / 8.20 ft
These are specified as 90% CE (circular error) for the horizontal and 90% LE (linear error)  for the vertical with no ground control
Swath Widths &
Representative Area Sizes
  • Nominal swath width - 15.2 km / 9.44 mi at Nadir
  • Single-point scene - 225 sq km (15x15 km)
  • Contiguous large area - 15,000 sq km (300x50 km)
  • Contiguous 1° cell size areas - 10,000 sq km (100x100 km)
  • Contiguous stereo area - 6,270 sq km (224x28 km)
(Area assumes pan mode at highest line rate)
Imaging Angle Capable of imaging in any direction
Revisit Frequency at 684 km
Altitude (40° Latitude Target)
Max Pan GSD (m)
0.42
0.50
0.59 		Off Nadir Look Angle (deg)
10
28
35 		Average Revisit (days)
8.3
2.8
2.1

Daily Monoscopic Area
Collection Capacity		 Up to 700,000 sq km/day (270,271 sq mi/day) of pan area (about the size of Texas)
Up to 350,000 sq km/day (135,135 sq mi/day) of pan-sharpened multispectral area  (about the size of New Mexico)

* Data reflects ground sample distance resolution at Nadir for exclusive use by the U.S. government and any foreign government that the U.S. government may designate. Imagery sold to commercial customers will be resampled to 0.5-meter resolution. GeoEye’s current operating license with NOAA does not permit the commercial sale of imagery below 0.5-meter resolution.


Technical Information

Launch Vehicle Delta II

Launch Vehicle Manufacturer Boeing Corporation

Launch Location Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Satellite Weight 1955 kg / 4310 lbs

Satellite Storage and Downlink 1 Terabit recorder; X-band downlink (at 740 mb/sec or 150 mb/sec)

Operational Life Fully redundant 7+ year design life; fuel for 15 years

Satellite Modes of Operation
  • Store and forward
  • Real-time image and downlink
  • Direct uplink with real-time downlink

 

Orbital Altitude 681 kilometers / 423 miles

Orbital Velocity About 7.5 km/sec or 17,000 mi/hr

Inclination/Equator Crossing Time 98 degrees / 10:30am

Orbit type/period Sun-synchronous / 98 minutes


FAQ

› What can you say about your next-generation system?
› When will you release any imagery?
› What is the NextView program?
› What happened to the satellite once it arrived at Vandenberg AFB before launch?
› How much did the satellite cost?

› more FAQs
Fact Sheet

Learn more about GeoEye-1's imaging, collection and advanced technical specifications.

› view fact sheet
GeoEye-1 Launched Sept. 6

      Watch the Launch Video
      Two minutes; T-4 plus
      launch sequence
     › Launch Video (zip - 28MB)

      Watch the Full Webcast
      105 minutes; 3 speeds
     › 100k Feed (zip - 70.1MB)
     › 300k Feed (zip - 216.7 MB)
     › 700k Feed (zip - 507.9MB)