Brandenburg / Havel, Germany, July 1, 2009 – RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate their own constellation of Earth observation satellites, announced today a new strategic partnership agreement with Washington, DC area based MDA Federal (formerly Earth Satellite Corporation – EarthSat) to be one of their distributors in the United States

. This partnership grants MDA Federal distribution rights for products and services to some U.S. government markets and was signed earlier this month.

“Since MDA in Vancouver was our prime contractor for our space and ground segment, it was only natural that MDA Federal in the United States would be part of our distributor network. We have been discussing this agreement for a long time, and have finally made it official. We're proud to have them as part of our distribution network,” commented Wolfgang Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye.

Greg Koeln, President of MDA Federal, said, “MDA Federal has been providing geospatial products and services to U.S. government agencies, conservation organizations, and various corporations since 1969. We are extremely pleased to partner with RapidEye and to provide the U.S. government with products and services derived from RapidEye data. We believe that RapidEye data will provide our clients with unique capabilities including: land use analysis, terrain categorization, change detection, alternative source data for creating high-resolution geospatial products, and unique agricultural assessments.”

RapidEye's worldwide network of distributors continues to grow to provide customers an avenue to purchase RapidEye products in their own region and in their own language. You can follow the progress of RapidEye's partner team by visiting www.rapideye.de/home/about-us/distributors-partners/.


About MDA Federal
MDA Federal Inc. (formerly Earth Satellite Corporation, founded in 1969) has been preeminent in the development and use of powerful and advanced geospatial technologies. MDA Federal Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), the prime contractor for RapidEye’s space and ground segment, in Richmond, British Columbia. MDA Federal’s Quality Management System is certified to ISO 9001-2000 with design.

For 40 years, MDA Federal Inc. has conducted resource programs around the world for private and public clients. MDA's technical staff have made substantial contributions to the advancement of image processing, information technology and GIS. In addition to providing essential geospatial products to U.S. civil, defense, and intelligence agencies, MDA Federal also provides weather and agricultural information to more than 200,000 customers every day.

About RapidEye AG
RapidEye is an ISO-certified geospatial information provider focused on integrating customized and industry specific solutions into the workflow of global customers in agriculture, forestry, energy, infrastructure, government, security and emergency. RapidEye experts and the satellite system – a constellation of five satellites capable of downloading over 4 million km² of high resolution, multi-spectral imagery per day, and a ground segment for processing and archiving data – allow for cost-effective customized services. The unique combination of large area coverage, high spatial resolution and the possibility of daily revisit to an area provide for superior management information solutions. Currently, more than 100 experts from more than 20 countries are employed by RapidEye, with plans to grow the team to 140 by late 2009.

RapidEye benefits from a public-private partnership with the Space Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. RapidEye is also co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). For more information on ERDF please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more information about RapidEye, please visit www.rapideye.de