Astrium has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Google Inc. to provide satellite imagery in support of Google Maps, Google Earth and other Google products and services. Under this agreement, Astrium Services will provide newly acquired imagery from its Pleiades and SPOT satellites.

Pleiades 1A and 1B are Europe's first very high-resolution Earth-observation satellites, offering exceptional performance to support both commercial and government markets with 50cm resolution imagery products. The SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 constellation, operated in conjunction with Pleiades, offers 1.5m resolution imagery products and is uniquely capable of mapping continent-wide areas.

This four-satellite constellation makes Astrium Services the first satellite operator in the world to offer a complete range of Earth-observation data at different resolutions (from medium to very high-resolution), an image collection capacity of up to 6.5 million square kilometers each day and the ability to image every point of the globe on a daily basis.

With this agreement, Astrium demonstrates again its unique ability to meet the increasing demand for imagery to support the online mapping and location-based services markets.

Through its GEO-Information business, Astrium Services is recognized as one of the leaders in the geo-spatial information market, not least thanks to the now fully integrated skills and resources of the former Spot Image and Infoterra.

The company provides decision-makers with complete solutions enabling them to increase security, boost agricultural performance, maximize oil and gas or mining operations, improve their management of natural resources, and protect the environment.

It has exclusive access to data from the SPOT, TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X and Pleiades satellites, coupled with a complete range of space-based data allowing it to offer an unrivalled scope of Earth observation products and services. This extensive portfolio covers the entire geo-information supply chain, from the generation of images to the provision of high added-value information to end-users.

By leveraging the synergies and expertise available across the whole of Astrium Services, its GEO-Information teams develop innovative, yet competitive, custom-made solutions based on the combination and integration of Earth observation, navigation and high-end telecommunications.