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GEOEYE BEGINS SELLING IMAGERY FROM ITS NEWEST SATELLITE

By TURNER BRINTON
Space News Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — GeoEye has begun selling imagery from its newest and most capable satellite to non-U.S. government customers following an extended test and checkout period during which the spacecraft experienced pointing problems due to a software glitch, according to a Feb. 5 press release issued by the Dulles, Va.-based company.

Sales of GeoEye-1 satellite imagery have yet to begin to GeoEye’s biggest and most important customer, the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), but company officials expect that to happen over the next few weeks, the press release said.

GeoEye-1 was launched Sept. 6, 2008, and is touted by the company as the world’s highest-resolution commercial imaging satellite, capable of distinguishing ground objects as small as 0.41 meters across. The NGA financed $237 million of the satellite’s $502 million in construction and launch costs under a program called NextView, which also funded a similar satellite built by GeoEye competitor DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colo.

GeoEye originally expected its satellite to become operational around 45 days after launch, but on-orbit testing revealed a problem with the software interface between the satellite and its star tracker system, which allows it to properly orient itself in space. The problem affected GeoEye’s ability to precisely determine the ground location of GeoEye-1 imagery. The software glitch, coupled with programmatic and launch schedule issues that delayed GeoEye-1′s launch by a year and a half, resulted in a down year for GeoEye, which through the first nine months of 2008 had a 23.6 percent decrease in revenue compared to the same period in 2007, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

GeoEye currently derives most of its revenue from sales of imagery from its aging Ikonos satellite, launched in 1999, which is less capable than GeoEye-1.

In the press release, GeoEye Chief Operating Officer William Schuster said GeoEye-1 was built to “extremely exacting requirements” that proved difficult to meet during the satellite’s test phase. “Additional improvements can still be made, but we have succeeded in attaining our performance objectives,” he said.

The company has thus begun selling GeoEye-1 imagery to government customers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East as well as commercial users. GeoEye is submitting the latest GeoEye-1 imagery to the NGA for certification, which is expected to take a couple of weeks, company spokesman Mark Brender said in an interview.

Once GeoEye-1 imagery is certified for use by the NGA, which procures commercial imagery on behalf of U.S. military and intelligence community users, GeoEye will begin receiving payments of $12.5 million per month for one year under a contract modification signed with the NGA in December 2008. After that contract expires, the company and the NGA will have to negotiate a new contract if sales are to continue, Brender said.

Meanwhile, GeoEye is pressing ahead with plans for its third-generation imaging satellite, GeoEye-2, which will be similar to its predecessor but have some increased tasking capabilities and better ground resolution, Brender said.

The company has ordered $28 million worth of long-lead components for the GeoEye-2 sensor from ITT Space Systems of Rochester, N.Y., which built GeoEye-1′s imaging camera, Brender said. GeoEye has not said whether the GeoEye-2 satellite platform will be procured from General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems of Gilbert, Ariz., which built GeoEye-1. GeoEye anticipates launching the satellite as early as 2012.

The U.S. government has yet to make clear whether it will underwrite construction of additional commercial imaging satellites as it did under the NextView program. Pentagon plans last year to build up to two commercial-class imaging satellites to be operated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office and serve military and intelligence users were squashed by Congress. The Pentagon has not yet revealed the details of its budget request for 2010.

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How are illegals paying taxes when paid in cash by a subcontractor on the project?

MARIETTA – An undercover agent for the watchdog group Jobs for Georgians has worked as a bricklayer the past three months on the construction of the new Cobb County Superior Courthouse, and told the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday he has evidence that illegal immigrants have been employed and paid in cash by a subcontractor on the project.

Commission Chairman Sam Olens said that the county would take “immediate action” if the allegations of illegal employment prove to be accurate, but added that right now they are only allegations.

Jose Alvarez may have looked like just another bricklayer, but he has been gathering evidence for Jobs for Georgians that he says substantiates the group’s suspicions that illegal immigrants are working under the watch of one of the project’s subcontractors.

Alvarez, who is also a business agent for the Washington, D.C.-based organization International Bricklayers, said he and another construction worker with Jobs for Georgians, Frank Lozano, began working on the site in November. Posing as bricklayers, they formed relationships with the workers and subcontractors and continued their work into January.

He was told subcontractor Zebra’s policy is for workers to show up at the job site in order to obtain work. But Alvarez said he could not get “a straight answer” from Victor Candelaria, a contractor hired by Zebra to oversee workers laying the blocks at the courthouse, about how much his workers were being paid. Alvarez said Candelaria’s reluctance to give him answers aroused his suspicions.

After discussions with other workers, Alvarez and Lozano learned they were being paid $10 an hour, as opposed to $18 an hour, which Alvarez said is the normal hourly rate. He said he soon found out there was a reason for the unreasonably low pay.

“I have a recorded conversation with Damian Perez, a bricklayer from Canada with legal status, who told me that he asked Victor when he was first hired whether he needed to present them with his papers, and he was told no. He said all he would need to do is go through a drug screening and the safety training set up by Turner, and that was it,” Alvarez said. “So I asked him why everyone was getting paid so low, and he told me Victor would take the checks issued to him by Zebra, cash them, then pay the workers in cash. He told them they were being paid less than usual, but that it was OK because there would be no taxes taken out. I can’t say I was surprised, because we knew this was going on not only with Zebra but with others, but it was good to finally get it on tape.”

Alvarez and a dozen other members of Jobs for Georgians voiced their concerns during Tuesday morning’s Cobb Board of commissioners meeting. Alvarez provided the commission with invoices that he said show Zebra even cheated Candelaria out of his $9,000 retainer.
http://www.mdjonline.com/view/full_story/5903006/article-Report–Illegals-working-on-courthouse?instance=home_news_left

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Digital cloud plan for city skies
By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News

The inflatable elements of the building would sit on top of thin, lightweight towers

A giant “digital cloud” that would “float” above London’s skyline has been outlined by an international team of architects, artists and engineers.

The construction would include 120m- (400ft-) tall mesh towers and a series of interconnected plastic bubbles that can be used to display images and data.

The Cloud, as it is known, would also be used an observation deck and park.

The unconventional structure was originally envisaged as a centre piece of the city’s Olympic village.

The building draws inspiration from the work of Tomas Saraceno
Its designers plan to raise the funds to build it by asking for micro-donations from millions of people.

“It’s really about people coming together to raise the Cloud,” Carlo Ratti, one of the architects behind the design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) told BBC News.

“We can build our Cloud with £5m or £50m. The flexibility of the structural system will allow us to tune the size of the Cloud to the level of funding that is reached.”

The size of the structure will evolve depending on the number of contributions, he said.

Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York who has seen the design described it as a “sculptural spectacle” and “a celebration of technology”.

‘Data streams’

The Cloud was shortlisted in a competition set-up by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

The mayor has committed to build a tourist attraction in the Olympic Park “with a legacy for the east end [of London]“.

Other finalists are thought to include the former Turner prize winner Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, the designer of the Angel of the North.

The mayor is still in the “process of deciding” which design will be commissioned, according to a spokesperson.

However, the team, which also includes the writer Umberto Eco and engineers from Arup, has decided to push ahead and publish details of its design.

The structure draws on work by artist Tomas Saraceno, a German-based designer who has previously shown off huge inflatable sculptures.

It is envisaged that the spheres would be made of a plastic known as Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), the material used to build the Beijing Aquatic Centre.

The different spheres would act as structural elements, habitable spaces, decoration and LCD screens on which data could be projected.

“We could provide a custom feed of… searches made by Londoners during the Olympics to give a real time ‘barometer’ of the city’s interests and mood,” said Google, one of the supporters of the project, which has also offered to provide the information feeds.

The team also envisage projecting weather information, spectator numbers, race results or even images of the Olympic Torch on to the building.

Ramps, stairs and lifts would carry people to the top of the structure to look out over the city.

‘Zero power’

The inflatable elements of the building would sit on top of slender, lightweight towers, stabilised by a net of metal cables.

Damping technology, similar to that used in Japanese skyscrapers to resist earthquakes, would prevent the towers being buffeted by the wind.

The Killesberg Tower in Germany is built using similar principles
“Many tall towers have preceded this, but our achievement is the high degree of transparency, the minimal use of material and the vast volume created by the spheres,” said professor Joerg Schleich, the structural engineer behind the towers.

Professor Schleich was responsible for the Olympic Stadium in Munich as well as numerous lightweight towers built to the same design as the Cloud.

The structure would also be used to harvest all the energy it produces according to Professor Ratti.

“It would be a zero power cloud,” he said.

As well as solar cells on the ground and inside some of the spheres, the lifts would use regenerative braking, similar to that in some hybrid cars.

That way, the designers say, potential energy from visitors to the top of the tower can be harnessed into useful electricity.

The team have launched a fundraising website called raisethecloud.org and are now looking for a site for the tower.

Google has already offered to provide free advertising for the so-called “cloud-raising” effort.

The firm has offered a sponsored link at the top of the page advertising a “£1 for 1 pixel” concept to people who search for terms relevant to London 2012.

“It will be a monument to crowd-sourcing,” said Professor Ratti.

Stimulus deal or national welfare?

I hate to say McCain (GOP) is right !. Though the bill may have a few “good” points. One thing is clear , it is loaded with PORK ! We’ll create more sign (stop-go) turners @ 20 bucks an hr/ with health benefits from hell.. on road construction (which btw i hope they start in my front yard) Is this the future of our country ? More 2nd round bail-outs (at least they do cap ceo’s on that issue) only to have them thinking , outsource and move to Taiwan/China/Malaysia,,or some other “tax reduced “free” 3rd world nation. How bout the circle of constuction ? from masonary to the nail banggers….tear down the old city buildings (lull of lead and rotted lumber and iorn water pipes ready to bust any minuite) just for starts something to stimulate every aspect from interior design to roof tops ?
What ever happened to made in “USA” , this package is a mear band aid for the BIG problem
I personally don’t think this is going to effect employment , create consumer confidence, which is what is needed
How bout a tax free year for all !!…not just big govt officials and appointee’s …WTF !!! How bout bringing Bill Gates or Ross Perot (people who know $$) in and let them work out a package for the govt let them figure out how to get this de-railed country prosperous once again
BTW should I pay my taxes this year?