WorldView-4
GeoEye-2 is a planned third generation commercial Earth observation satellite, due to launch in 2011 or 2012. The satellite will have a resolution of 25cm, making it the highest resolution commercial Earth observation satellite in orbit, once it has been launched. However, restrictive licensing by the US government makes it likely that only the US Government and some of its allies will have access to imagery at the full design resolution - all other users will have to make do with imagery at the highest resolution that the US Government licenses for other users - 50cm. The imaging sensor will be manufactured by ITT Corporation, and the satellite owned by GeoEye.
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 birds 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.
Aperture: 1.1 m[1]