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Rapideye contracted to cover China third year running. Rapideye overing Lithuania in Multi-Year contract

RAPIDEYE CONTRACTED TO COVER CHINA THIRD YEAR RUNNING

Brandenburg / Havel, Germany, December 7, 2011 – RapidEye, a leader in wide area, repetitive coverage of Earth through its constellation of satellites announced today that it has signed a contract with China’s Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) to cover almost five million square kilometers of China over the next few months. This is the third consecutive year that RapidEye was a successful bidder to cover China for the MLR.

“With its five satellites and the strongest satellite imagery collection capability to our markets, the RapidEye system performs extremely well when serving clients such as MLR,” commented Mr. Bing Sun, CEO of Beijing Eastdawn Information Technology Co. Ltd.(EDIT). “We strongly believe our partnership with RapidEye brings the best satellite technology available as well as service know-how to the Chinese market.”

“There was a tremendous amount of preparation by our Chinese distributor, EDIT to position us. The competition is getting more severe, but EDIT represented us well,” commented John Ahlrichs, Vice President of International Sales for RapidEye. “Of course, the sales process was made easier because we have proven to the MLR twice before that we are reliable and can deliver high quality data over wide areas on time or ahead of schedule.”

The agreement between RapidEye and the MLR would require a delivery of nearly five million square kilometers of China (more than 50% of the country) with less than 10% cloud cover. Some key areas that will prove a challenge are the traditionally cloudy areas of Tibet and the Southeastern provinces.

“With an order such as this, there’s really no better system than ours to deal with historically cloudy areas,” commented Massimiliano Vitale, RapidEye’s Chief Operating Officer. “We will never get the areas cloud free, but our system will have a better chance because of our quick return capabilities.” In anticipation of the order, RapidEye began imaging the area of interest (AOI) in early August. Currently the imaging campaign is scheduled for completion in later this month, earlier than in previous years.

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RAPIDEYE COVERS LITHUANIA IN MULTI-YEAR CONTRACT

5 Satellites Shine When Given Challenge of Cloudy Regions
Brandenburg / Havel, Germany, November 17, 2011 – RapidEye, a leader in wide area, repetitive coverage of Earth through its constellation of satellites announced today that a second full coverage of Lithuania has been delivered and accepted by the Institute of Aerial Geodesy (AGI) in Kaunas, Lithuania.

This fulfills two-thirds of a multi-year, full coverage contract that was negotiated last year.

“Since Lithuania is above 54 degrees north and experiences quite wet summers, it’s a cloudy region,” commented RapidEye’s Market Manager, Clemens Stromeyer. “This is a situation where our system really shines. It can repeatedly return to an area, which allows for a combination of images to be used for generating full country coverages with very little or no cloud cover during the vegetation season. This is of great benefit to our customers.”

The Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture plans to use RapidEye’s satellite images for monitoring agricultural land use and particularly for detection of abandoned agricultural land.

“Pan-sharpening of RapidEye’s multi-spectral five meter satellite imagery in combination with half meter aerial photography will enable detection of even smallest land cover changes,” commented Gintaras Rumšas, Technical Director of AGI. “This will be an important source of information for institutions responsible for implementation of strict EU requirements related to agricultural subsidies. Lithuanian authorities will implement targeted policy measures towards reduction of abandoned lands by flexible tax-compensation policy, so it is crucial to obtain regular updates on land use changes across the whole country.”

Environmental monitoring by the Environmental Protection Agency and maintenance of nature protection areas network will be yet another priority area for the use of high resolution satellite imagery.

AGI currently takes part in a ICT-PSP project “HLanData”, which – among other activities – is focusing on the development of practical solutions for implementation of an integrated land monitoring system in a trans-boundary pilot area of Latvia and Lithuania.

“Based on experience of the ongoing FP7 project ‘Geoland 2’, we are developing specifications and methodologies for production of a high resolution land cover database along with an interactive on-line analysis and reporting service, which will be presented as a prototype of land monitoring service to public authorities of both countries,” noted Dr. Gediminas Vaitkus, Head of AGI Applied Research Center. “RapidEye imagery will be used as the major source of information in this project, with a potential of becoming key element for a long-term land monitoring program in eastern Baltic.”

The third and final coverage of Lithuania to complete the contract is scheduled for delivery to AGI by this time next year.

To view the full archive of RapidEye imagery, visit EyeFind and discover how many square kilometers of fresh data from around the globe are available from Lithuania or any other country! Enter your parameters and immediately find what you need. http://www.rapideye.de/products/eyefind.htm

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