Earth Observation News, Technology and Business 19-MAR-10 en-us Rome, Italy (SPX) Mar 15, 2010 - Thales Alenia Space has started the development of Sentinel 1B and 3B Earth observation satellites in its Italian and French facilities. These contracts have been awarded to Thales Alenia Space in December 2009, worth 270 million euros, by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme.]]> Paris, France (ESA) Mar 15, 2010 - Marking another significant step in the GMES initiative, ESA and Thales Alenia Space recently signed a contract worth euros 270 million to build the second Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 satellites.]]> Sunnyvale CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2010 - Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company has been selected by GeoEye, Inc. to build the company's next-generation, high-resolution Earth imaging satellite system known as GeoEye-2. Financial terms are not being disclosed at this time.]]> Moffett Field CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2010 - What's adding fuel to the fire of climate change? Well, fire. Some stunning images recently taken by NASA's Aqua satellite show one of the Earth's latest firestorms - this one at the Dundes Nature Reserve in Western Australia. Nearly 200,000 acres have gone up in flames as of February 18. That's a lot of carbon added to the atmosphere.]]> El Segundo CA (SPX) Mar 08, 2010 - Boeing has received the first on-orbit signals from the third Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) built by Boeing for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The satellite, GOES-P, is healthy and ready to begin thruster firings to move to its on-orbit test location. GOES-P is a Boeing 601 satellite that will provide enhanced Earth-observation and weather-monitoring services.]]> Jiuquan, China (XNA) Mar 08, 2010 - China has successfully put into orbit another remote-sensing satellite, "Yaogan IX" at 12:55 p.m.(Beijing Time) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu Province, according to a statement from the center Friday.]]> Paris, France (ESA) Mar 05, 2010 - For the past 12 years, ESA's Eduspace website has been a window on the world for secondary students and teachers. Now the website has been completely redesigned and updated, so that it provides an even more valuable introduction to Earth observation and its applications.]]> Hanover, Germany (AFP) March 2, 2010 - US Internet giant Google launched on Tuesday a charm offensive for its "Street View" navigation service, aiming to soothe the privacy doubts of a sceptical German public.]]> Bonn, Germany (SPX) Mar 03, 2010 - Looking like a needle of ice and snow, iceberg B-15K was caught in the act by the German Aerospace Center's (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) TerraSAR-X satellite as it collided with an ice shelf in Atka Bay, Antarctica.]]> Paris, France (ESA) Feb 26, 2010 - The European Investment Bank has an annual lending portfolio of around 75 billion euros, operating globally in more than 130 countries. The Bank has been increasingly mainstreaming environmental considerations into its lending portfolio, boosting the need to monitor the impact of the projects it funds. As its environmental commitments have increased, so too has the demand for geospatial information.]]>