Press Release

ORBIMAGE Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of OrbView-3 Launch

By SpaceRef Editor
July 12, 2004
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ORBIMAGE Inc. (“ORBIMAGE”), the
Dulles, VA-based satellite imaging company, announced the one-year anniversary
of the launch of OrbView-3, its first high-resolution imaging satellite.
Launched on June 26, 2003 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, OrbView-3 orbits 470
km above the Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit while collecting imagery of
every continent of the Earth’s surface at one-meter resolution in the
Panchromatic (black and white) mode, and at four-meter resolution in the
Multispectral (color) mode.

Since its launch, OrbView-3 has flown over 233 million kilometers around
the Earth, performed more than 3,100 imaging operations and has collected more
than 1.5 million square kilometers of imagery. Calibration and check out of
the satellite and ground station was completed in January 2004, and to date
ORBIMAGE has activated three ground stations for its international regional
distributors.

“On the first anniversary of OrbView-3’s successful launch, we are very
proud of our first year achievements,” said Matthew O’Connell, ORBIMAGE’s CEO.
“The satellite is performing exceptionally well. We have systematically
accomplished all of the planned milestones of our initial operations to become
fully operational. With the satellite performing so well, we look forward to
continuing the successful and rapid growth of our business in our second year
of operations.”

OrbView-3 is the newest high-resolution satellite among those commercially
operated. ORBIMAGE currently expects OrbView-3 will have an operational life
of 7 years, thus exceeding its 5 year design life. Imagery from the OrbView-3
satellite has many applications including mapping, environmental and
agricultural monitoring, land use and land classification, natural disaster
assessment, national security and forestry mapping, among others.

Sample images from the OrbView-3 satellite are available for viewing on
ORBIMAGE’s website http://www.orbimage.com. Any images used by print,
electronic or broadcast media must be attributed to ORBIMAGE.

About ORBIMAGE:

ORBIMAGE is a leading global provider of Earth imagery products and
services, with digital remote sensing satellites and an integrated worldwide
image receiving, processing and distribution network. In addition to OrbView-
3, ORBIMAGE operates the OrbView-2 ocean and land multispectral imaging
satellite. The company also produces value-added imagery products and
photogrammetry engineering services at its St. Louis facility. ORBIMAGE
distributes its products directly to the U.S. government for national security
and related mapping applications. Commercial sales are handled through a
worldwide network of value-added resellers, regional distributors, sales
agents, and select strategic partners.

For more information about ORBIMAGE, please see our web site at
http://www.orbimage.com.

SpaceRef staff editor.