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Google Satellite now watching you from 423 miles up

Posted on , Updated on by Elias Kifle

By Henry Blodget, Silicon Alley Insider

The GeoEye satellite that Google will use to provide mapping imagery at 50-centimeter resolution successfully blasted into space today. So don’t leave your underwear lying all over your lawn.

Andy Plesser of Beet.TV put together a cool video animation (below). Stephen Shankland of CNET has the story:

GeoEye-1 will orbit 423 miles above Earth, but it will be able to gather imagery with details the size of 41 centimeters… Google, though, is permitted to use data only with a resolution of 50cm because of the terms of GeoEye’s license with the U.S. government.

Each day, the satellite will be able to gather a high-resolution “pan-sharpened” format surface area equal to that of about New Mexico, the company said.

“The GeoEye-1 satellite has the highest ground resolution color imagery available in the commercial marketplace and will produce high-quality imagery with a very accurate geolocation,” said Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz, adding that most commercial satellite imagery has a resolution of 60cm. “It is our goal to display high-resolution imagery for as much of the world as possible, and GeoEye-1 will help further that goal.”

3 thoughts on “Google Satellite now watching you from 423 miles up”

  1. I like Googleearth and used it frequently. My favorite is to virtually travel along some highways from a place to another place like from Addis to Asmara. That is really cool and you don’t have to show your passport to any border guard. No, kidding aside, I hope soon we and our Eritrean and Ethiopian cousins will be able to travel back and forth on the ground with such ease of transportation experience!

  3. Wow to the 21st century technology. It is possible for Knowledge transfer.

    There are more than atleast 500,000 professionals Ethiopians around the world. Those are the HUMAN CAPITAL to our MOTHER LAND.

    The question is one and that is Meles must go. Enough is Enough.

    There are many Ethiopians around the world who can invest to our land in effective way.

    The precondition is very simple. RULE OF LAW, JUSTICE & DEMOCRACY for all.

    It is possible we can CHANGE our country from POVERTY to INDEPENDENCE from foreign aid.

    YES WE CAN & YES HR-2003 !!!

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