DigitalGlobe
Partners with TAQNIA and KACST to Develop
Constellation of Small Imaging Satellites
DigitalGlobe, Inc. announced the formation
of a joint venture with TAQNIA, a firm
dedicated to accelerating technology
development for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
in partnership with KACST to develop a
constellation of highly capable small
imaging satellites to support the needs of
customers around the world.
DigitalGlobe and TAQNIA and KACST signed
an agreement on February 21, 2016, to form a
joint venture that will be responsible for
developing six or more sub-meter resolution
imaging satellites. The small satellites are
expected to be capable of collecting imagery
with anticipated 80 cm resolution and will
leverage DigitalGlobe’s industry-leading
ground infrastructure. TAQNIA and KACST will
benefit from DigitalGlobe’s imagery
production platform and expertise and
massive catalog of high-resolution,
high-accuracy imagery, which will improve
the native accuracy of the small satellite
imagery. TAQNIA and KACST will also benefit
from DigitalGlobe’s global distribution
capability and existing customer
relationships with the world’s largest
buyers of commercial satellite imagery and
geospatial information.
KACST will construct, integrate, and
launch the satellites, and it will own 50%
of the satellites’ imaging capacity inside
of KACST’s communication cone, which
includes Saudi Arabia and the surrounding
region. DigitalGlobe will have rights to the
other 50% of the capacity inside this region
and 100% of the satellites’ capacity outside
of the region. TAQNIA will be responsible
for marketing and monetizing 50% of the
capacity within the KACST communication
cone. DigitalGlobe will be responsible for
marketing and monetizing the remaining 50%
of capacity within the KACST communication
cone and 100% of the remaining worldwide
capacity. Additionally, DigitalGlobe,
TAQNIA, and KACST will share the
commercially generated revenue. The small
satellites are expected to be launched in
late 2018 or early 2019 and will be highly
complementary to the next-generation
satellite architecture DigitalGlobe is
developing to replenish WorldView-1 and
WorldView-2. Finally, this partnership
offers DigitalGlobe customers a
complementary source of data to address new
use cases, while expanding the image catalog
of DigitalGlobe’s Geospatial Big Data
platform.
King Abdulaziz City for Science and
Technology (KACST), an independent
scientific organization led by H.H. Dr.
Turki bin Saud bin Mohammad Al Saud and one
of DigitalGlobe’s direct access customers,
will lead the development of the small
satellites and benefit from the assured,
supplemental capacity and intra-day revisit
rate they will provide.
“The satellites developed under this
partnership will allow us to uniquely unlock
new value in emerging use cases by combining
high-resolution, high-accuracy imagery and
high-revisit imagery,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr,
DigitalGlobe President and Chief Executive
Officer. “This innovative, capital-efficient
business model leverages DigitalGlobe’s
extensive investment in an industry-leading
ground infrastructure and our customer
relationships to the mutual benefit of both
parties. We are proud to expand our strong
partnership with H.H. Dr. Turki and the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
“Partnering with the premier commercial
satellite imaging firm will help to propel
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to become a
leader in remote sensing and satellite
technology,” said H.H. Dr. Turki bin Saud,
Chairman of the Board of Directors for
TAQNIA and President of KACST.
“We believe this partnership has
tremendous value for TAQNIA, DigitalGlobe,
and the many global customers that will be
able to leverage these unique capabilities,”
said Mr. Abdullah Alosaimi, Chief Executive
Officer of TAQNIA Space Company.
