[Satellite Today 10-29-08] GeoEye Inc. signed a multi-year agreement for Rome-based Telespazio S.p.A. to act as GeoEye’s commercial regional affiliate for Europe and North Africa, Geoeye announced Oct. 29.
    Under the agreement, signed Oct. 15, Telespazio, a Finmeccanica/Thales company, will produce, market and sell Earth imagery and related products and services based on imagery collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite to customers in Europe and North Africa.
    GeoEye-1, which will collect ground images with a resolution of less than 0.5 meters, was launched in September and is expected to be fully operational this fall.
    Beginning in 2009, Telespazio also will have exclusive access to images collected by the Ikonos satellite. The GeoEye-1 and Ikonos collection, processing and sales rights granted to Telespazio are subject to U.S. government approval of the multi-year agreement, GeoEye said.
    "The European market is thriving,” Paolo Colombi, GeoEye’s vice president of international sales, said in a statement. “We expect our association with Telespazio to optimize our market penetration in this important part of the world.”