Dulles, Va.-based Orbimage gained a big boost for its business by winning a $500 million, multi-year pact to give high-resolution imagery to the U.S. government under a contract awarded by the Bethesda, Md.-based National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

The imagery would be obtained from a yet-to-be launched, next-generation U.S. commercial imagery satellite, allowing NGA to move beyond prior commercial imagery- acquisition contracts by assuring access, priority tasking rights, specific area coverage and broad licensing terms for all its potential mission partners. This pact will further transform how NGA provides geospatial intelligence by assuring availability of 0.5-meter commercial imagery.

NGA was able to obtain funding to offer a second contract to one of the other two U.S.-based remote sensing companies, and Orbimage emerged from Chapter 11 just in time to prepare what turned into the winning bid. The decision is the second big blow to Thornton, Colo.-based Space Imaging, which lost an initial NextView contract last year to Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe.