spacetoday.net: New federal policy to promote commercial remote sensing

Posted: Thu, May 15, 2003, 10:12 AM ET (1412 GMT)
QuickBird satellite illustration (DigitalGlobe)

The US government issued a new policy statement this week that requires government agencies to use commercial satellite imagery wherever possible. The US Commercial Remote Sensing Policy, approved by the President on April 25 but only officially released Tuesday, would allow companies to develop satellites capable of taking higher-resolution images than presently available, although the sale of the sharpest images may be restricted to government customers, and the government would still have the ability to exercise "shutter control" to prevent the release of images of sensitive areas. The policy also requires government agencies to use commercial imagery wherever possible in place of images from civil or military satellites. The release of the policy, developed as the first stage of a broad space policy review by the Bush Administration, was greeted warmly by the satellite remote sensing industry. One company, Space Imaging, announced that it would work with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to bid on contracts for NextView, a program by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) to help fund the development of a next generation of commercial high-resolution imaging satellites.