[Satellite Today 11-12-08] GeoEye Inc.’s revenues for the third quarter of 2008 fell to $35.9 million, compared with its $53.8 million mark for the corresponding quarter in 2007, the company announced Nov. 10.
The primary reason for the revenue decrease was a reduction in orders from GeoEye’s largest customer, the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). GeoEye said it believes that in light of the delay of launching its GeoEye-1 satellite, NGA may have reallocated imagery orders to DigitalGlobe, because the competitor’s NextView satellite has already launched and is operational.
GeoEye is finishing the calibration and checkout phase of GeoEye-1 and expects to start commercial operations in December. The company is in negotiations with the NGA regarding the establishment of a service level agreement that GeoEye believes will streamline the order flow from NGA.