From the Publisher
By Roland Mangold

An Industry Holds Its Breath

At the time of this writing, we are a week away from the scheduled launch of Space Imaging's IKONOS 1, the world's first one-meter resolution commercial imaging satellite. The IKONOS 1 satellite sits on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) in California, waiting to be launched into space aboard a Lockheed Martin Astronautics Athena II rocket on 27 April 1999. An entire industry holds its breath in the hopes that the launch is successful. Indeed, the industry is not only hoping-its praying-because at this stage, all that man can do with all his technology, ingenuity, and wisdom has been done. It is now in the hands of a higher order-whether that be God, fate, or whatever supreme power that controls these things.
      Thousands of people, predominately associated with the GeoTechnology industry, are waiting anxiously for an operational high-resolution satellite. The hope is that it will cause a landslide of new business opportunities for companies that create software tools to use the new high-res data, and value-added companies are expecting a host of new markets to open as a result of access to this data.
      The prospects of this industry having access to high-resolution imagery are certainly getting brighter. By the time this issue hits the street, we will know the status of IKONOS 1, and there are positive reports emanating from the other Colorado Front Range high-resolution satellite company.
      EarthWatch Incorporated recently announced an agreement that provides EarthWatch with $25 million of equity financing from ITT Industries, Inc., to continue development of an enhanced Earth imaging system. In addition to the investment from ITT Industries, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and various funds managed by Capital Research & Management Company will concurrently invest $25 million in the venture to round out the total of $50 million. If we add ORBIMAGE's one-meter satellite, which could potentially launch within a year, we would have three high-res satellites all beaming terabytes of data to Earth.
      No question, I am getting ahead of the situation, contemplating the opportunities associated with three satellites. However, it does illustrate possibly the biggest issue associated with this hi-res phenomenon, and that is we could be faced with a deluge of data-but who is going to buy all this data-this industry still has not faced the issue of developing the potential markets.
      EOM has been committed to growing the markets for the GeoTechnologies since our inception in 1992, and with this issue we have a special insert of The GEMI Catalog dedicated to the telecommunications industry. An additional 20,000 GEMI catalogs have been printed and will be mailed to the 18,000 attendees of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) annual conference held this spring in New Orleans. Where this is a step in the right direction, it is still just a drop in the bucket and the industry as a whole needs to get behind the task of developing the markets that will parlay this new, abundant data source into business opportunities.
      We can all have an effect on the commercial opportunities for high-res satellite data. As for the satellites themselves, all that can be done by man has been done, all that can be left to do by us mere mortals is to pray or hope for what indeed this industry desperately needs . . . A Success!

Cheers

Roland Mangold
Publisher

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