GeoEye-2

GeoEye-2 is a planned third generation commercial Earth observation satellite, due to launch in early 2013. The satellite will have a resolution of 34 cm, making it the highest resolution commercial Earth observation satellite in orbit, once it has been launched.

When it goes up, GeoEye-2 will join two other satellites, GeoEye-1 and IKONOS, which are already in orbit. Assuming that both these satellite continue to operate, this will give GeoEye three sub-metre satellites in orbit, and the ability to offer its customers daily revisits. This will potentially open up a whole new raft of applications for the company. RapidEye already provides this capability on a commercial basis, but its satellites only offer 5 metre resolution