SUNNYVALE, CA, 09-NOV-00 -- The IKONOS commercial remote sensing satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company for Space Imaging has received the coveted Best of What's New Grand Award in the Aviation & Space category from Popular Science magazine. Space Imaging is honored to have been chosen to receive this prestigious award, said John Copple, Space Imaging's CEO. It's a tribute to our employees, and our partners Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Kodak who have developed the IKONOS system to enable us to use satellite imagery to solve practical business problems. Receiving this recognition from such a mainstream magazine as Popular Science is testimony that our services and products are making a difference for those who are using this exciting new visual information technology.

We are proud that IKONOS has received this important recognition, said Ed Irvin, director of commercial remote sensing programs for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. The IKONOS satellite technology is ideally suited to cost-effectively enable high-precision earth observation and space science missions, and we are pleased to provide our customer, Space Imaging, with the world's first commercial one-meter resolution imaging satellite.

Launched on Sept. 24, 1999, the IKONOS satellite is the most sophisticated remote sensing spacecraft ever operated for the commercial market, capable of photographing objects on the ground as small as one meter. The technology is providing high-resolution black-and-white and multispectral digital pictures and other imagery. Multispectral images reveal information that cannot be seen with the naked eye, such as chlorophyll content, chemical composition, surface water penetration and the presence of oil leached from the seabed. Customers will be able to combine panchromatic and multispectral images to produce images that offer the advantages of both techniques.

Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite was chosen as a winner from thousands of new product and technology developments reviewed by Popular Science editors over the past year. From these many technological developments, 100 are selected for a Best of What's New award in 10 different categories. In addition to being one of the top 100 technologies overall, IKONOS was chosen to receive the Grand Award in the Aviation and Space category.

Earlier this year, the IKONOS satellite was also awarded The Industry Innovation Award in the Technology Category from the Society of Space Professionals International.

The spacecraft was designed and built at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Missiles & Space Operations, in Sunnyvale, Calif. Space Systems is a global leader in the design, development, test and production of space launch systems, ground systems, scientific spacecraft, satellites for commercial and government customers, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems.