GeoEye reports 4Q and FY 2011 earning results

Publish Date: 14 March 2012

Herndon, US: GeoEye, Inc. announced results for its fiscal fourth quarter (4Q) and fiscal year (FY) 2011. Total revenues for the twelve months ended on December 31, 2011, were USD 356.4 million, an 8 percent increase from USD 330.3 million in the FY 2010.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, total revenues were USD 96.8 million, a 17 percent increase from USD 82.5 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2010. Net income available to common stockholders for the fourth quarter of 2011 was USD 14.1 million, or USD 0.62 per fully diluted share, compared to net income available to common stockholders of USD 15.2 million, or USD 0.68 per fully diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2010.

"In 2011, we greatly strengthened our capabilities to deliver geospatial solutions to our many customers around the world," said Matt O'Connell, chief executive officer and president. "We had a record fourth quarter, we won several significant commercial contracts and our GeoEye-2 satellite program remains on schedule and on budget."

New business developments
Multi-year, multi-million dollar Russian contract with ScanEx - In the fourth quarter, our reseller, ScanEx, signed a multi-year agreement with the Russian cadastre agency that is using our extensive image library for tracking land sales in Russia.

New agreement with Esri - In the fourth quarter, we began developing a new Global Crisis Response Service with Esri for first responders, government agencies and commercial organizations.

Expanding relationship with Google - Imagery from GeoEye is now widely available on numerous Google platforms including Google Earth and Google Maps. We added a new premium service on Google Earth Builder platform in the fourth quarter.

New multi-million dollar contract win with GE Aviation - In early March, we signed a multi-year agreement that will provide GE Aviation with access to GeoEye's imagery for hundreds of international airports from GeoEye's 3D Airports product family. These GeoEye aeronautical databases will be imbedded into GE Aviation's products and services.

Recent operating highlights
EnhancedView contract award renewal - The EnhancedView Service Level Agreement with the NGA was renewed on October 4, 2011. The current term of the contract runs through September 1, 2012. Eight additional option periods are still outstanding. In the fourth quarter, GeoEye recognised revenues of USD 37.2 million from our Service Level Agreement with the NGA.

GeoEye-2 construction - During the year, the company invested USD 268.8 million, which included USD 44.6 million of capitalised interest for the continued development and construction of the GeoEye-2 satellite. To date, the company has invested USD 578.7 million in the GeoEye-2 satellite programme which includes USD 63.0 million of capitalised interest. The programme remains on time and on budget.
source: http://geospatialworld.net

Researchers develop tool to retrieve georeferenced images

Publish Date: 13 March 2012

Madrid, Spain: Researchers at the University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M), Spain, developed a tool, eStorys. It allows people to retrieve georeferenced images uploaded on the social networking website, place them on maps and organise them as a comic book, to create a visual perspective of a particular story, as a crisis or emergency. UC3M scientists created the system in collaboration with the University of Rome (Italy). 

The tool aims to help professionals involved in emergency management to obtain data and images to understand how citizens perceive such situations and detect faults and areas for improvement. Paloma Diaz, Professor of the Department UC3M Informatics explained, "It's a tool to explore and study emergency situations during the mitigation phase, to learn and improve response plans and establish better ways to prepare for the citizens."

The project facilitates the search of photographs hanging on World-Wide-Web around a specific topic, for a period of time or a specific location. After that, the application allows the images to place on maps by their geographic coordinates and screen of most interest to the user. The result is a digital story that can be shared with other Internet and composing a visual summary that helps to understand or document a particular situation.

This platform has also been evaluated through interviews with emergency management professionals in British Columbia (Canada) and the state of Washington (EEUU). "The results suggest that governmental agencies prefer to approach the social networks through more restricted communities, practice communities or special interest communities, so that the credibility of the information can guaranteed," commented Paloma Díaz. "The lack of reliability of the information found on the social networks continues to be one of the greatest impediments to their being incorporated into the process of emergency management," she concluded.

source: http://geospatialworld.net

Vietnam selects Belgium-based firm for EO satellite

Publish Date: 15 March 2012

Hanoi, Vietnam: Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) signed contractual pre-agreements with the Belgium-based SPACEBEL, a software engineering company operating in the space and earth monitoring applications sectors, for the supply of an earth observation mini-satellite, VNREDSat-1b (Vietnam Natural Resources, Environment & Disaster Monitoring satellite). The satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2017.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Nguyen Thi Doan, Vice President of Vietnam; and Belgian Crown Prince Philippe in Hanoi, Vietnam. In addition, they signed Belgian Government’s letter on the provision of an additional EUR3 million to the EUR63 million credit meant for the VNREDSat-1B project.

After several years of negotiations, the SPACEBEL consortium was selected in July 2011 on the basis of their technical proposal and thanks to the continuous support of the Belgian Government, both at Federal and regional levels.

With the VNREDSat-1b, Vietnam will be able to monitor independently its territory and environment. Weighing 130 kg, the small spacecraft will play an important role, amongst others, in the field of natural resources management (agriculture, forests), will ensure a better follow-up of climate changes, detect pollution in the seas, help to minimise the impact of natural disasters, etc.

To realise this project representing a total value of over EUR 60 million, SPACEBEL relies upon the expertise of a panel of Belgian partners: QinetiQ Space, AMOS, Deltatec, the Space Centre of Liège and VITO, who will be responsible respectively for the satellite platform, hyperspectral instrument, integration and testing, and data processing.

Prime contractor and architect of the system, SPACEBEL will also develop the on-board software as well as the entire ground segment. A training programme on satellite technology and remote sensing space applications to be set up in co-operation with the University of Liège completes the SPACEBEL offer.

source: http://geospatialworld.net

Astrium expresses desire to acquire US satellite firm

Publish Date: 14 March 2012

France: Astrium, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), is "generally interested" in acquiring one of two satellite imagery providers, GeoEye Inc or DigitalGlobe Inc, and would look carefully at a deal if the price was affordable, according to Evert Dudok, Chief Executive of Astrium Satellites.

In conversation with Reuters, Dudok said the company's parent, EADS was actively looking for takeover targets in the US, and either of the two companies would be a good fit with Astrium, which is ranked No. 3 -- behind them -- in the geospatial information market.

Out of sight but not out of mind by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 5, 2012 On March 1 a rather amazing story appeared on the front page of The Washington Post. The article stated that various current and former US military and intelligence officials had told a Post reporter that Iran’s underground nuclear facility was “not impregnable.” Despite Iran’s best efforts, the Post reported, the complex could be penetrated and its contents of uranium enrichment centrifuges could be destroyed. An important tool that the United States has for detecting and assessing underground complexes is satellite reconnaissance. What prompted the sources to speak to the Post? And, considering how sensitive the information was, why hadn’t the Obama Administration requested—as they have on several occasions—that the Post not print the story? The obvious conclusion is that the administration probably initiated the story to send a message. But to whom? Perhaps the message is intended for Iran: “Don’t think that you can protect your nuclear facilities from attack. Negotiate a settlement or face the consequences.” Or perhaps the message was intended for Israeli officials about to visit Washington: “There is no ‘closing window of vulnerability’ during which you have to attack Iran before they can safely protect their nuclear facilities. They will be vulnerable for a long time.” Most probably, the message was meant for both countries. But the story highlights the fact that the US intelligence community has long had an interest in determining the vulnerability of underground complexes. In fact, the Defense Intelligence Agency even has a dedicated organization for addressing them, the Underground Facilities Analysis Center, or UFAC. An important tool that the United States has for detecting and assessing underground complexes is satellite reconnaissance. But this is a limited resource because of the obvious fact that it’s hard to use photography from space to detect activities under ground.