Skybox Blog

Palo Alto, California – April 20, 2010:  Skybox Imaging announced today that the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has granted Skybox a license to operate a private, commercial, remote sensing satellite named “SkySat-1.”

SkySat-1 is a commercial Earth observation satellite, licensed to collect high resolution panchromatic and multispectral images of the earth. The satellite will operate in a polar inclined, circular orbit at approximately 450 km above the earth. Skybox becomes only the fifth organization licensed to provide high resolution space-based imagery of Earth.

Dan Berkenstock, Skybox Chief Executive Officer, said “Receipt of our NOAA license is a key milestone along to road towards democratizing access to satellite imagery. Skybox will provide imagery to commercial users at a level of quality and timeliness that was previously only available to large government users. NOAA licensing is a concrete example of the US government’s move to commercialize the space industry and Skybox is pleased to be on the forefront of this new frontier “

About the regulator

The Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce.

About Skybox Imaging

Skybox Imaging, Inc is a privately held, venture backed company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. In today’s interconnected world, leaders in diverse sectors such as finance, environmental monitoring, and infrastructure management need increasingly complex information to support decision making. Skybox has a unique focus on commercial consumers of satellite imagery and the data derived from these images.