The Ikonos satellite was launched on September 24, 1999 aboard the Athena 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base (USA).
Ikonos is the world's first commercial satellite that provided panchromatic imagery with a 0.82 m resolution and multispectral imagery with a 3.2 m resolution. The satellite's orbit altitude is 681 km, and revisit time is three days. The satellite transmitted images directly to over a dozen ground stations located around the world.
Owing to high maneuverability of Ikonos, it was able to capture up to 240,000 km2 per day as well as stereo-pairs from one pass.
It was decommissioned in March 2015. Currently, an archive of panchromatic and multispectral images around the world is available.
Technical Characteristics
| Modes: | Panchromatic | Multispectral |
| Spectral Range (µm): | 0.45–0.90 | blue: 0.45–0.52 green: 0.52–0.61 red: 0.64–0.72 near infrared: 0.77–0.88 |
| Spatial Resolution, m: | 0.82 | 3.2 |
| Radiometric Resolution: | 11 bits / pixel | |
| Swath Width: | 11.3 km | |
| Revisit time (40 ° N): | About 3 days | |
| Acquire Stereo-Pair: | Yes, from one pass | |
| Data ordering options | Archive (minimum area for order – 25 sq.km | |