As pirate attacks continue on ships in the faraway Gulf of Aden, a satellite company with major operations in Thornton is helping in the effort to stop them.
The Ikonos satellite, which orbits 423 miles above Earth and is operated by GeoEye, snapped a high-resolution picture of oil supertanker MV Sirius Star in November, a few days after it was reported missing by the U.S. Navy, according to GeoEye spokesman Mark Brender.
"We were able to precisely locate the ship about 5 miles off the Somali coast," said Brender, who directed the satellite to snap images in the area after reading press reports about the ship's location.
The 1,090-foot-long vessel is owned by a Saudi oil company and remains hijacked.
Somali pirates reportedly sought $15 million in ransom for the tanker, which was carrying $100 million of oil and 25 crew members.
Ikonos was launched in September 1999 by Space Imaging, a Thornton-based company that merged with Orbimage Holdings in 2006 to form GeoEye.
Dulles, Va.-based GeoEye employs 464, including about 130 in Thornton.
The company took the initiative to shoot the image to show "that commercial satellite imagery is a tool to monitor the maritime environment," Brender said.
More here…
No comments:
Post a Comment