Back in September 2013 I wrote an opinion about why the US government’s laws regarding imagery resolution were very onerous. The rules just didn’t make sense in a world of cheap picture drones. That opinion was based on a story about DigitalGlobe attempting to get imagery restrictions relaxed so they could compete better in the satellite imagery market.
Now, that has all changed. According to this Marketwired.com article, and DigitalGlobe’s subsequent announcement, the US Department of Commerce has relaxed those satellite imagery restrictions. From Marketwired.com:
“Effective immediately, DigitalGlobe will be permitted to offer customers the highest resolution available from their current constellation.”
There’s also a bit about allowing specifically finer resolutions to be made available from DigitalGlobe’s Worldview-3 low earth orbiting satellite, about six months after it’s launched in August. Marketwired.com also has a nice chart comparing most of DigitalGlobe’s satellites and their capabilities, if you’re curious.
Good news for DigitalGlobe and its customers. Now, does SkyBox have to go through the same thing? Especially now that Google is trying to buy them? A lot of action going on in the satellite imagery world.
The Mad Spaceball 