The first commercial satellite launched 25 years ago—and totally changed the world

A quarter century ago today, the first commercial Earth observation satellite, Ikonos, was launched into space. The satellite was developed by the Lockheed Corp., and operated by a company called Space Imaging—which has since rebranded to DigitalGlobe.

Ikonos was touted as a trailblazer: It could take high-resolution images down to a meter’s detail, which previously had been possible only with advanced military satellite imagery. The satellite operated until March 2015, taking nearly 600,000 images in its life span.

But beyond laying claim to being the first, and besides the hundreds of thousands of photographs, Ikonos served another role: It kick-started a celestial revolution. In the 1990s, just 31% of satellites in space were commercially owned. Today, 88% are. Anyone can buy a satellite image of a location with resolution showing detail down to 50 centimeters for less than $20 from the internet. Which means that as well as providing people with an opportunity for a cool, bird’s eye-view photograph to hang in their home, or providing investigators with the ability to track troop movements by Russia in Ukraine or the damage wrought by dictators in Syria, it can also liberalize access to data to help us understand our planet.

“Satellite imagery and Earth observation once belonged to the realm of a select few experts,” says Stuart Rowland, founder and CEO of Revalue, a climate-tech startup that relies on satellite data. “Today, they are accessible to even the earliest-stage, mission-driven startups—transforming how we understand our planet and the impact we have on nature. This technology underpins our AI approaches that detect and predict deforestation and accurately measure the regeneration of forests.”

Simonetta Di Pippo, professor of practice of space economy at Bocconi University in Milan, says, “Ikonos paved the way for Earth observation to flourish in plenty of very helpful applications. She points out that Earth observation (EO) has been revolutionary to our understanding of how we live, as well as powering large numbers of the services we use day in and day out. More than half of the 55 essential climate variables defined by the World Meteorological Organization can be monitored precisely and constantly only from space, she adds, underlining their importance.

From tracking the changing face of our planet to monitoring the levels of deforestation, satellites orbiting Earth have become an increasingly important part of our lives. “We are fortunate that satellite technologies have matured and become cost-effective at a critical time for humanity and our planet,” says Reijo Pold, founder of Value.Space, an insurance-tech firm that uses satellites to carry out risk assessments. “One of the capabilities they now offer is near-real-time assessment and monitoring of the world’s critical infrastructure, such as dams, mines, railways, highways, and supporting structures like bridges and overpasses.”

Value.Space recently assessed the viability of a bridge in Dresden, Germany, prior to its partial collapse earlier this month. Satellite imagery allows assessors to see what’s wrong from a different vantage point that can highlight issues before they arise—unlike this time.

“Much of the global infrastructure is aging and has already exceeded its designed life span,” Pold says. “At the same time, increasingly frequent extreme weather patterns are testing the limits of these vulnerable assets. The reality is that there are not enough resources to rehabilitate all infrastructure or engineers to monitor and detect risks that threaten large-scale critical assets on a global scale.” Being able to effectively outsource that to orbiting eyes in the sky helps alleviate many of the risks without relying on human oversight.

And given it’s only 25 years since the first commercial satellite was launched, the technology remains in its infancy—with plenty of development yet to come. The integration of optical, radar, and LiDAR sensors is already unlocking an unparalleled understanding of the structure, growth, and diversity of nature,” says Rowland. “We’re on a journey toward near-real-time monitoring and insights across the globe.” He says that the ubiquity of satellites can help make us more aware of the beauty of our planet, and alongside it, the perils it faces.

That’s something others agree with—and say needs to be supported even more to make sure it continues to happen. “The more the EO-related technologies become mature, the more commercial satellites will go hand in hand with institutional satellites toward the same goal: improving the quality of life of humans on Earth,” says Di Pippo. “The very recent marriage between EO satellites and AI will provide a new boost to the industry, and the associated benefits for us mean that we welcome EO into our lives more and more.”

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