GeoEye highlights the following items that are included in the contract:

- $2.8 billion for commercial satellite imagery purchases over the next ten years as follows:

           – for an extension of the NGA’s current ability to purchase commercial imagery from the Company’s existing satellite constellation under a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for $150 million per year.

           – An additional award to purchase commercial imagery, when GeoEye-2 becomes operational in 2013, for approximately $184 million per year for seven years.

-  $337 million cost share for the development and launch of GeoEye-2.
 
- $700 million for value-added products and services to include the design and procurement of additional infrastructure to support government operations. This also includes the EyeQ Web Mapping Services to be delivered under the SLA.

"We are very gratified by this award," said Matt O’Connell, GeoEye’s President and CEO. "With this award, we’ll continue the accelerated development of our GeoEye-2 satellite so that it is operational in 2013. We will also upgrade our infrastructure and continue expanding our Web-delivery systems so that we can deliver the world’s best commercial imagery to the NGA and our other customers anywhere, anytime."

"We have been proud to serve the NGA for more than two decades, and we look forward to continuing this strong legacy of service as commercial imagery becomes fully integrated into the national imagery architecture," said Bill Schuster, GeoEye’s chief operating officer. "We’re particularly proud that the NGA has chosen us to support their important EnhancedView program and to help ensure that the nation has access to the best commercial imagery in the world."

We haven’t heard whether Google will pursue imagery from GeoEye 2, but it would not be surprising. They won’t be counting on flying camera drones or anything.

The satellite’s camera was said to be capable of achieving .41 meters resolution in black and white and 1.65 meters in color. A couple months after the launch, the first photos were released, and they were quite impressive. That was last October, and ReadWriteWeb did a side-by-side comparison between the first GeoEye photo and the then-current Google Maps imagery of the same area:

GeoEye announced the one-year anniversary of the GeoEye-1′s launch today. "The past year has been an exciting and rewarding one for GeoEye," said Bill Schuster, GeoEye’s Chief Operating Officer. "With the launch of GeoEye-1 last September, we put into service the world’s most advanced commercial imagery satellite, which is delivering the highest resolution, most accurate color satellite imagery available today."

Since its launch, GeoEye-1 has:

- imaged every continent in the world

- chronicled several noteworthy events like President Obama’s inauguration ceremony and a North Korean missile facility just moments before the launch of a long-range missile

- collected approximately 54 million square kilometers of imagery

- taken over 200,000 images since its launch.

GeoEye says the GeoEye 2 is in the works. The company has contracted with ITT Corporation to build the next high-resolution camera and electronics. They’re looking for commercial operations with that to get underway in 2013. No word on whether that will continue to inolve Google, or other map-providing search engines.

You can pan around and zoom in and out easily using just your thumb on the touchscreen — a big plus for all those times when that other hand is unavailable. And if I want to see a restaurant or building up close, I can switch to Street View and view a panorama from street level. I can even turn on Compass mode to let me look around the panorama by moving my phone up, down, and to the side. It’s like popping up a virtual periscope anywhere you want to check out what’s there with your own eyes. Check out the video below for a quick demo. Note that Street View on Android is only available in the US at this time.

When I’m in a new city or just a new part of town, I like to turn on My Location. It can use GPS or just the nearest cell tower to tell me where I am and re-center my position in the middle of my screen when I approach the edge. When I’m walking or in a taxi in a dense city, like New York, I zoom in to street level and turn on GPS for the highest accuracy.

With the G1, you can also save search results to contacts, so when you find a business using Google Maps, you can conveniently store the map. This should be a convenient feature for people who travel a lot, particularly to the same cities repeatedly. If you find a great Chinese restaurant in LA once, you can easily find it again via your contacts.

Developers are free to use Android’s MapView and location APIs to build "location-aware" mobile applications, so I would expect to see a lot of cool things happening out of that. Conway cites Cab4me and Locale, which were winners in the Android Developer Challenge.

These apps and Google Maps for Android are bound to be exceptionally cool once the GeoEye imagery is implemented throughout (the first image was released today). Anyone used Google Maps on Android much yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

"We are pleased to release the first GeoEye-1 image, bringing us even closer to the start of the satellite’s commercial operations and sales to our customers," says GeoEye CEO Matthew O’Connell.

The first image is of the Kutztown University campus in Pennsylvania, and was taken at noon on October 7th while the GeoEye-1 was moving north to south in a 423-mile-high orbit over the eastern seaboard of the U.S. at a speed of four-and-one-half miles per second. ReadWrite Web put together a side-by-side look at the GeoEye imagery compared to current Google Maps imagery:

That’s nothing though. The satellite is capable of achieving .41 meters resolution in black and white and 1.65 meters in color, but government regulations will only allow half-meter images to the public, so those concerned about privacy can breathe a little easiser. 

Financially, GeoEye is apparently right where it needs to be. "We are bringing GeoEye-1 into service within four years of our contract award with no contract cost overruns," says GeoEye COO Bill Schuster. "The entire program which includes the satellite, launch, insurance, financing and four ground stations was less than $502 million. That’s the amount established and agreed to four years ago." He further noted, "GeoEye-1 is an excellent fit to meet the U.S. Government’s important requirements for mapping and broad area space-based imagery collection over the next decade."

GeoEye will be selling imagery products from the GeoEye-1 later this fall.

Geoeye is launching a satellite with the highest resolution available on the market and they are lending its technology exclusively to Google. Google is even putting its logo on the rocket that launches the satellite. Google has been using GeoEye among other providers to this point, and will continue to do so. However, none have ever contributed any imagery this sophisticated.

National Stadium, Beijing, China, Collected August 18, 2008

Unfortunately for those concerned about privacy, this means they will be able to get clearer images from closer distances. If you happen to be standing in your yard while a picture from the satellite is taken, they might be able to see birthmarks and other imperfections in your skin. Ok, I’m not sure if they’ll be getting that close. I’m just trying to do my part to fuel the paranoia.

Don’t worry. While the satellite is capable of achieving .41 meters resolution in black and white and 1.65 meters in color, Reuters says that current government rules only allow them to offer half-meter images to the public. Of course, they can still see closer.

The satellite is worth about $502 million, though the financial transaction between Google and GeoEye is unclear. Images from the satellite should start appearing on Google within the next several months. It is launching in 6 days.