The first commercial satellite was launched 25 years ago—and it changed the world forever

A quarter of a year ago today, the first earth observation satellite, Ikonos, was launched into space. The satellite was developed by Lockheed Corp., and is operated by a company called Space Imaging—renamed DigitalGlobe.

Ikonos has been called a trailblazer: It can take high-resolution images down to meter detail, previously only possible with advanced military satellite imagery. The satellite operated until March 2015, taking nearly 600,000 images in its lifetime.

But without laying claim to originality, and without hundreds of thousands of images, the Ikonos served another role: It started a heavenly revolution. In the 1990s, only 31% of satellites in space were commercially owned. Today, 88% are there. Anyone can buy a satellite image of the area with a resolution of up to 50 centimeters of detail for less than $20 online. Which means that as well as giving people the opportunity for a cool, bird’s-eye view picture to hang in their house, or giving investigators the ability to track the movements of Russian troops in Ukraine or the damage done by dictators in Syria, it can also free access to data to help us understand our planet.

“Satellite imagery and Earth observation were the chosen few,” says Stuart Rowland, founder and CEO of Revalue, a weather technology startup that relies on satellite data. “Today, they are accessible even in the early, mission-driven stages—to transform the way we understand our planet and the impact we have on nature. This technology supports our AI methods that detect and predict deforestation and accurately measure forest regeneration.”

Simonetta Di Pippo, professor of space economics at Bocconi University in Milan, says, “Ikonos paved the way for Earth observation to flourish in many useful applications. He points out that Earth observation (EO) has revolutionized our understanding of how we live, as well as powering a large number of services we use every day. More than half of the 55 important weather conditions defined by the World Meteorological Organization can be observed accurately and regularly only from space, he adds, emphasizing their importance.

From tracking the changing face of our planet to monitoring deforestation rates, Earth-orbiting satellites have become an increasingly important part of our lives. “We are fortunate that satellite technology has matured and become valuable at a critical time for humanity and our planet,” said Reijo Pold, founder of Value.Space, a technology insurance company that uses satellites to assess risk. “One of the capabilities they now offer is the inspection and monitoring of critical global infrastructure, such as dams, mines, railroads, highways, and supporting structures such as bridges and overpasses.”

Value.Space recently tested the performance of a bridge in Dresden, Germany, before its partial collapse earlier this month. Satellite imagery allows inspectors to see what’s wrong from a different location that can highlight problems before they arise—unlike this time.

“Most of the world’s infrastructure is aging and has already exceeded its designed lifespan,” said Pold. “At the same time, increasingly severe weather is testing the limits of these vulnerable goods. The truth is that there are not enough resources to renew all the infrastructure or engineers to monitor and detect hazards that threaten the world’s most important assets.” Being able to successfully extract that from the orbiting eyes in the sky helps mitigate a lot of risk without relying on human oversight.

And since it’s been 25 years since the first commercial satellite was launched, the technology is still in its infancy—with a lot of development work yet to come. “The combination of optical sensors, radar, and LiDAR is already opening up an unparalleled understanding of the structure, growth, and diversity of the environment,” Rowland said. we have noticed the beauty of our planet, and alongside it, the dangers it faces.

That’s something others agree with—and say it needs even more support to make sure it continues to happen. “As the technology related to EO matures, more commercial satellites will accompany institutional satellites towards the same goal: to improve the quality of life of people on Earth,” said Di Pippo. “The recent marriage between EO satellites and AI will give new power to the industry, and the associated benefits mean we welcome EO into our lives more and more.”