Lockheed Martin moves forward with next-generation imaging satellite

Lockheed Martin, headquartered in Bethesda, Md., has completed a Systems Requirements Review (SRR) for a new advanced Earth-imaging satellite named GeoEye-2.

GeoEye-2, scheduled to be in orbit and operational in 2013, is a next-generation, high-resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite owned and operated by GeoEye in Dulles, Va. The spacecraft will feature a new high-resolution camera that has been in development for more than two years.

On Aug. 6, GeoEye was awarded a contract worth up to $3.8 billion from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to increase commercial satellite-imaging capacity and support the agency’s EnhancedView program. The EnhancedView program provides critical imagery and global security information to intelligence analysts, war fighters and decision makers. GeoEye, along with Lockheed Martin, is developing the GeoEye-2 satellite to support the EnhancedView program.

Lockheed Martin designed and built the world’s first commercial, high-resolution, Earth-imaging satellite, Ikonos, which has been providing 0.82-meter ground resolution imagery to GeoEye's customers around the globe for more than a decade.

With the SRR complete, Lockheed Martin can now proceed with the Preliminary Design Review phase for GeoEye-2 scheduled for completion later this year.