New satellite missions added to Apex™ Ground Station in Chile.

Boulder, Colo. — Jul 13, 2009 — Vexcel Corp., a Microsoft company, today announced the completion of a multi-mission upgrade to the recently commissioned Apex remote sensing ground station in Santiago, Chile.  The project is part of Lockheed Martin Aeronautic’s  Industrial Cooperation Program for the F-16 Peace Puma Program.  In May 2008, Vexcel provided a complete, integrated, automated, Apex ground station to the Chilean Air Force’s AeroPhotogrammetric Service (Fuerza Aerea de Chile Servicio Aerofotogrametrico | FACh SAF) initially configured for reception and processing of NASA’s MODIS electro-optical sensor on the Terra and Aqua satellites. Since then, the ground station has been operational 24x7x365 receiving, processing, cataloging, and disseminating MODIS image products. Now, Vexcel has added support for the EROS-B high-resolution panchromatic optical satellite from Imagesat International and the SPOT-4 medium resolution multi-spectral optical satellite from Spot Image.  All 4 satellites are now seamlessly integrated into the Apex Commander remote sensing data management system allowing FACh SAF to receive and process these missions automatically from a single consistent user interface.
“We are pleased and excited to have this new space capability in Chile,” said Colonel Ludwig Gronemeyer, director of SAF. “This station has long been awaited by the citizens of Chile and provides our country with a powerful new capability for mapping, environmental monitoring, emergency management, and other critical applications. The Vexcel Apex ground system is a state-of-the-art facility which automates all of our missions and is incredibly easy to operate.”

One of the first MODIS images received at the new station by its 6.1m radome-enclosed X-band tracking antenna clearly depicted the early May 2008 eruption of the Chaitén volcano in southern Chile.  One of the first SPOT-4 images received after the station upgrade depicted a long cloud free swath over north central Chile from the Bolivian border, across the Atacama desert, and down to Antofagasta.  An EROS-B image captured by Imagesat after station construction in November 2008 showed the radome and SAF facility situated on the north end of the runway at the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport.

About Vexcel

Founded in 1985, Vexcel Corp. is a remote sensing company with headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. The company’s legacy offerings to government and commercial markets include turnkey satellite ground systems, a range of remote sensing imagery processing products, and advanced radar processing and geospatial services. The company was acquired by Microsoft Corporation on May 3, 2006. To learn more, please visit http://www.vexcel.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About FACh SAF

The Aerophotogrametric Service of the Chilean Air Force was founded in October 11, 1963. It is considered one of the official institutions for geographical matters. Since its creation, SAF has been concentrated on the generation of products and delivery of services related to remote sensing, aerophotogrammetry and aeronautical charting. For more information, please visit http://www.saf.cl.