The German radar satellite TerraSAR-X celebrates the completion of its second year in space; commercial business operations have been ongoing since early 2008, and the German Astrium subsidiary Infoterra GmbH, owner of the commercial exploitation rights, has successfully established a solid position in the global market for Earth observation data and services.
Nikolaus Faller, Chief Operations Officer of Infoterra, reports that the company’s future looks promising: "A continuously growing number of users around the globe are convinced of the unique advantages TerraSAR-X has to offer: The radar sensors' weather independence guarantees extremely reliable acquisitions, further, users appreciate the precision of the satellite. Just recently, the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency NGA has officially confirmed the outstanding geolocation accuracy of our data."
Facts and figures support this: more than 22,000 scenes have been acquired over recent months, 50+ partners in 33 countries apply and distribute the data, innovative geo-information products and services are currently being tested and validated in 80+ pilot studies, and at the German Infoterra sites in Friedrichshafen and Potsdam, more than 80 new jobs have been created since the TerraSAR-X launch.
Thus, the concept of creating Infoterra in order to consolidate the use of Earth observation data beyond pure scientific applications into commercial markets, proves to be sustainable.
