January 2000

Satellites, Silicon, a Startup

By Rebecca Zacks

Journalists are often slammed for forgetting stories after the initial news cools. There's some truth in that charge, so we've decided to revisit selected stories. Call it "Chapter Two" in the life of news. We'll bring these offerings to you from time to time in Benchmarks.

• Our March/April cover story reported the impending commercial availability of spy-quality satellite images of the earth. Surviving a failed satellite launch in April, Thornton, Colo.-based Space Imaging became the first to offer images with 1-meter resolution, capturing views of Washington, D.C., in late September.

• European Global Positioning System users have long been aware that, since GPS is a U.S. military monopoly, the signal they rely on could be jammed at American discretion. The European Space Agency has approved the first appropriation-$42 million-toward a European equivalent of GPS called Galileo. The new system could further complicate things for American GPS firms, whose struggles were described in the July/August issue.