Best Commercial Imagery

IKONOS was a pioneering commercial Earth observation satellite launched in 1999 by Space Imaging (later GeoEye). As the first privately owned satellite to provide sub-meter resolution imagery to the public, it fundamentally transformed the commercial geospatial industry. Operating in a sun-synchrono...

QuickBird was a commercial high-resolution Earth observation satellite operated by DigitalGlobe and launched in 2001. Circling the planet in a sun-synchronous orbit, the satellite captured panchromatic imagery at a resolution of 0.61 meters and multispectral imagery at 2.4 meters. These detailed ima...

Pleiades Neo 3 is an Earth observation satellite funded, built, and operated by Airbus, launched in April 2021. As the first satellite in the Pleiades Neo constellation, it provides very high-resolution commercial optical imagery from a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. The spacecraft is equipped to...

WorldView-2 is a high-resolution commercial Earth observation satellite launched in 2009 and operated by DigitalGlobe, now known as Maxar Technologies. Operating in a sun-synchronous orbit, it was the first commercial satellite to provide eight-band multispectral imagery alongside 0.46-meter panchro...

Pleiades Neo 4 is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite developed and operated by Airbus Defence and Space, successfully launched in August 2021. It joined its twin satellite, Pleiades Neo 3, in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit to form the core of a very high-resolution commercial constella...

GeoEye-1 is a commercial high-resolution Earth observation satellite launched on September 6, 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Built by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems under the NGA NextView program, it provides 0.41-meter panchromatic and 1.65-meter multispectral imagery from a su...

Pleiades 1B is a high-resolution optical Earth observation satellite launched in December 2012 by the French space agency CNES, with Airbus Defence and Space as the primary manufacturer. It operates in a sun-synchronous polar orbit alongside its twin, Pleiades 1A. Together, the two satellites form a...

Pleiades 1A is a French optical Earth observation satellite launched in December 2011 as part of a joint program between CNES and Airbus Defence and Space. Operating from a sun-synchronous polar orbit, it captures very high-resolution optical imagery to support defense, agriculture, and environmenta...

WorldView-1 is a commercial Earth observation satellite launched by DigitalGlobe in 2007. Operating in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of approximately 496 kilometers, the satellite was designed to capture high-resolution panchromatic imagery. It features a camera system capable of resolving...

RapidEye was a commercial constellation of five Earth observation satellites operated by Planet (formerly BlackBridge), launched in 2008, providing 5-meter resolution multispectral imagery including a red-edge band.

SPOT-6 is a commercial optical Earth observation satellite launched in 2012 and operated by Airbus Defence and Space. As part of the long-running SPOT (Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre) series, it provides high-resolution imagery alongside its twin satellite, SPOT-7. The satellite captures p...

SPOT-7 is an optical Earth observation satellite built by Airbus Defence and Space and launched in 2014. It was designed to operate as part of a constellation alongside its twin satellite, SPOT-6, providing high-resolution commercial imagery. The satellite captures 1.5-meter resolution panchromatic...

WorldView-4 was a DigitalGlobe commercial satellite launched in 2016 providing 0.31-meter panchromatic imagery until a control moment gyroscope failure permanently disabled it in 2019.