[10-19-07 – Satellite Today]  GeoEye Inc. awarded a contract to ITT Corp. to begin work on the camera for the GeoEye-2 imaging satellite, GeoEye announced Oct. 18.

GeoEye expects to award a contract to a satellite manufacturer in 2008 to develop its third-generation satellite, which will be capable of discerning objects on the Earth’s surface as small as 0.25 meters in diameter. The satellite is scheduled for launch in 2011.

GeoEye-2 will be the same general class as GeoEye-1, which was developed under the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s NextView program and manufactured by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. The satellite is scheduled to be launched in the late first quarter or early second quarter of 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.