ORBIMAGE Names Gary E. Payton Vice President for Engineering and Operations
Orbital Imaging Corporation
(ORBIMAGE), a leading global provider of Earth imagery products and services,
today announced the appointment of Gary E. Payton to the position of Vice
President, Engineering and Operations.
Mr. Payton’s appointment is effective
as of July 13, 2000.
Mr. Payton will be primarily responsible for the management and direction
of ORBIMAGE’s satellite operations and engineering departments. A space
industry veteran, Mr. Payton has extensive experience in space launch program
management, as well as in satellite and aerospace engineering.
Prior to joining ORBIMAGE, Mr. Payton held several positions with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). From 1997 until July
2000, he was the Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Transportation
Technology. From 1995 to 1997, he was the Director of NASA’s Space
Transportation Division. At NASA, Mr. Payton was responsible for strategic
planning, program formulation, policy/procedure development and financial
affairs.
Prior to joining NASA, Mr. Payton was a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force,
where he held a variety of positions in the Department of Defense over a nine-
year period, including Deputy for Technology, Director of Theater Missile
Defense Sensors, and Assistant Deputy for Technology in the Ballistic Missile
Defense Organization (BMDO).
Prior to his BMDO assignment, Colonel Payton
advanced from fighter pilot to Director of satellite systems engineering and
project management for the Air Force in a variety of key management positions.
Colonel Payton was also the first Department of Defense astronaut to fly on
the U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.
ORBIMAGE President and CEO Gilbert D. Rye said, “We are excited to have
Gary Payton join us at this stage of our development.
He has significant
experience with NASA and the Department of Defense, who are key customers for
our imagery products and services. Gary’s technical management expertise and
leadership skills will benefit our satellite and production operations as we
prepare for the next phase of our business. Under his leadership, we will
prepare for the planned launch of the first of our high-resolution satellites
early next year.”
About ORBIMAGE
ORBIMAGE is a leading global provider of Earth imagery products and
services, with a planned constellation of five digital remote sensing
satellites. The company currently operates the OrbView-1 atmospheric imaging
satellite (launched in 1995), the OrbView-2 ocean and land multispectral
imaging satellite (launched in 1997), and a worldwide integrated image
receiving, processing and distribution network. Currently under development,
ORBIMAGE’s OrbView-3 and OrbView-4 high-resolution satellites will offer one-
meter panchromatic and four-meter multispectral digital imagery. OrbView-4
will also offer the world’s first commercial hyperspectral satellite imagery.
ORBIMAGE is also the exclusive, worldwide distributor of imagery from the
Canadian RADARSAT-2 satellite. ORBIMAGE currently offers one-meter high-
resolution panchromatic imagery of major U.S. and non-U.S. urban areas through
its OrbView Cities catalog, available at http://www.orbimage.com. In addition,
ORBIMAGE distributes imagery from SPOT Image, RADARSAT-1 and Russia’s SPIN-2
satellite. ORBIMAGE also offers the SeaStar Pro Fisheries Information Service,
which provides fish finding maps derived from OrbView-2 ocean imagery to
fishing customers worldwide.
To learn more about ORBIMAGE, visit: http://www.orbimage.com.
