WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- GeoEye-1, the world's highest-resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite, was launched into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the satellite maker GeoEye Inc. announced on Saturday.
The 4310-pound (about 1,957 kgs) satellite was launched at 11:50 a.m. PDT (1850 GMT) on a Delta 2 rocket. GeoEye's ground station in Norway relayed the downlink signal it received from GeoEye-1 confirming that the satellite successfully separated from the second stage of the launch vehicle and began automatically initializing its onboard systems.
