IKONOS Imaging Satellite Achieves 15 Years of On-Orbit Operation

Satellite That Took First Publicly Available Pictures of Earth More than Doubles Design Life

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Sep 24, 2014, 10:00 ET

DENVER, Sept. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IKONOS, built by Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] for DigitalGlobe, Inc., [NYSE: DGI], celebrates its 15^th birthday on-orbit today. IKONOS, the first satellite to collect and publicly share high-resolution earth images, was launched on Sept. 24, 1999, and has taken thousands of photos of Earth for applications including national security, disaster relief, agriculture, and mapping.

Today, IKONOS continues to perform more than seven years beyond its initial design life, collecting 0.82-meter resolution black-and-white imagery and 3.28-meter resolution multispectral data.

"This milestone is one more chapter in the legacy of our expertise in earth imaging. Lockheed Martin has provided more than 300 remote sensing satellites to commercial, civil and military customers," said Mike Hamel, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space.

Most recently, Lockheed Martin built the WorldView-4 (previously GeoEye-2) satellite, which will serve as DigitalGlobe's next high-resolution imaging satellite to provide multispectral imagery to commercial, government and international customers. The satellite is planned for launch in mid-2016.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 113,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2013 were $45.4 billion.

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SOURCE Lockheed Martin