Google Earth's new satellite sends its first image
10 Oct 2008, 1652 Hrs

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London, October 10 Google Earth's new satellite, GeoEye-1, has provided a high resolution picture of Pennsylvania-based Kutztown University campus, which also happens to be its first picture.

The satellite took the picture on Tuesday when it was in a 423-mile-high orbit over the East Coast of the U.S.

"We expect the quality of the imagery to be even better as we continue the calibration activity," the Telegraph quoted Brad Peterson, GeoEye's vice president of operations, as saying.

The 500million-dollar satellite's main client is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, but Google is its major sponsor and has exclusive commercial rights to its images.

GeoEye-1 can address national security concerns by providing its governmental clients with higher resolution photos than commercial partners like Google, which plans to use the images on Google Maps and Google Earth.

The satellite imagery from GeoEye-1 will be of a higher resolution and better quality than what is currently available on Google Maps and Google Earth. (ANI)