DigitalGlobe
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DigitalGlobe, of Longmont, Colorado, USA, is a privately-held <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> commercial vendor of space imagery and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company was founded in 1993, as WorldView, with a license from the United States Department of Commerce to build a commercial remote sensing satellite. In 1995, the company became EarthWatch Incorporated, merging WorldView with Ball Aerospace's commercial remote sensing operations. <ref name="companyhistory">Template:Cite web</ref> In September 2001, EarthWatch became DigitalGlobe. <ref name="nasa">Template:Cite web</ref>
QuickBird, launched on October 18, 2001 <ref name="companyhistory"/>, is DigitalGlobe's primary satellite, which was built in partnership with Ball Aerospace and Orbital Sciences. DigitalGlobe plans to launch its next generation of satellites, with WorldView I scheduled for launch in 2006 and WorldView II no later than 2008. <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> DigitalGlobe has partnered with Boeing for development of the WorldView satellites. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
DigitalGlobe’s customers range from urban planners, to the U.S. federal agencies, including NASA<ref name="nasa"/> and the United States Department of Defense's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As well, much of Google Earth and Google Maps high resolution-imagery is provided by DigitalGlobe <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>, as is imagery used in Microsoft's TerraServer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> DigitalGlobe's main competitors are GeoEye (formerly Orbimage and Space Imaging) and Spot Image.