The 100m x 90m scene was recreated from an image by three Yuat artists. While Sheila Humphries, Fatima Drayton, and Deborah Nannup had never worked together, despite being related, they came together for the project, which was aimed at uniting Australians on the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum that recognized Aboriginal people as citizens.

One of the three projects photographed from space was part of the National Australia Day Council’s Look Up and Smile project. Titled Peace, the artwork was created by using semi-trailers to carefully lay tones of sand in a sheep paddock that belonged to a 160-year-old Benedictine monk community located in New Norcia. Sheila sees art like religion, as it is about making a link with the past in order to find a way of looking at the present. In 1846, a group of Spanish Benedictine monks arrived to set up a monastery with the purpose of civilizing and evangelizing the Aboriginal people of New Norcia. These symbols are traditional to the Yuat area, and they show men and women who have traveled from outlying campsites to sit in a common place to meet, talk, and tell stories.

RUSH tasking orders for satellite image data around the world are accepted by SIC in support of live events, natural disasters, global security, and various other applications in which FAST delivery of image data is critical. In most instances, we can provide image data within 24 hours after the initial data has been acquired and delivered via FTP and DVD media.

For more information on RUSH tasking and other SIC services, please visit our Web site at http://www.satimagingcorp.com. A Spanish version is also available at http://www.satimagingcorp.es.

On Australia Day (January 26, 2007 – Australia Time), Microsoft has commissioned Satellite Imaging Corporation to task the IKONOS satellite sensor (at 0.8m resolution) to take a satellite image of New Norcia, which will depict the Yuat people reflecting unity. The scene was designed by three professional artists.

Australia Day will feature numerous events around the country. The custom imagery collected by Satellite Imaging Corporation (SIC) will be processed and made ready for an appearance at Look Up and Smile, the official site commissioned by Microsoft Australia. It will be overlaid on Virtual Earth maps in order to complement the event listings and photos uploaded by users.

The Virtual Earth map uses groundbreaking Microsoft technology, such as pushpin clustering, custom pushpin pop-ups, on-demand content loading for pop-ups, and Web service throttling, a feature of MS AJAX RC 1.

With today’s satellite remote sensing technology and the availability of satellite and airborne sensors, we are capable of obtaining valuable information that can monitor global environmental changes and provide key decision makers with essential data, such as 3D terrain visualization and geospatial information designed to support geographic information systems (GIS) projects.

United in Reconciliation

The event, a celebration of freedom, culture, and religious faiths, will be held at New Norcia from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Recreated in an outback sheep paddock, the image will measure 100m x 90m and will be captured by the IKONOS high resolution satellite sensor in honor of the day. The painting Peace will lay on the ground at a 160-year-old farm from the old Benedictine community, whose constituents are leading the way to practical reconciliation. Peace features six campsites and a common meeting place near the Moore River. The olive leaves, a symbol of peace, will reflect the artists’ time as children, when they harvested the New Norcia olives. Peace is a creation of Sheila Humphries, Fatima Drayton, and Deborah Nannup, all artists who still call New Norcia their home. The project will unite Australians for the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum that officially acknowledged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as citizens.

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Australia Day is a national public holiday. For many years, the holiday was held on the closest Monday of the anniversary, in order to provide a long weekend. Today, it is held on the actual anniversary of the 1967 referendum.

Australia Day is marked by civic celebrations around the country, including the Order of Australia and Australian of the Year awards for outstanding achievement. The Australia Day Achievement Medallion is awarded to citizens for their excellence in both government and non-government organizations. Air Force aerial displays are held in some capital cities. Citizenship ceremonies are also held on Australia Day, and the Prime Minister customarily makes an address to the nation.

Australia Day is treated with ambivalence by those who consider the anniversary of the foundation of one colony irrelevant to the overall history of Australia. Some Western Australians are quick to point out that Western Australia was not even claimed by Britain until September 19, 1829, while the eastern part of Australia had been claimed much earlier, in 1770.

GeoEye, the world’s largest commercial satellite imaging company, announced today the delivery of the camera for its next-generation commercial imaging satellite to General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Gilbert, Arizona for integration into the satellite. When operational, GeoEye-1 will be the world’s highest resolution commercial imaging satellite producing satellite images with a resolution of 0.4 meters.

Satellite Imaging Corporation is an official reseller of GeoEye Satellite Imaging products and services and provides the Oil and Gas E&P, E&C and Geospatial Industry with enhanced 2D/3D Image processing services.

ITT (Rochester, New York) built the sensor, optical telescope assembly, detectors and focal plane assembly, and the high-speed digital processing electronics. The sensor is the single most important component of GeoEye-1 and it is considered a major milestone when the sensor is delivered to the prime contractor. The sensor was delivered to General Dynamics earlier this week.

The major components have now been delivered and the process of integration and testing has begun in preparation for launch. However, GeoEye believes it is possible that integration and testing may not be concluded in time to support a launch this spring for which it is currently scheduled. As a result of this and the busy Delta II launch schedule, GeoEye is working towards a launch from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. in the last quarter of 2007.

GeoEye-1 will be lifted into a near-polar orbit by a Delta II launch vehicle procured by Boeing Launch Services (Huntington Beach, Calif.) from United Launch Alliance, Denver, Colo. This launch vehicle is the most reliable launch vehicle in its class.

“Getting the major components in house and in good condition is a critical achievement toward the successful completion of the program,” said Bill Schuster, GeoEye’s chief operating officer. “The effort now is to bring these pieces together and to thoroughly test the fully integrated system prior to launch to ensure that GeoEye-1 will meet all program performance objectives when it is placed into service. Our goal is 100 percent mission success.”

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