Microsoft fights Google in space

In early October, GeoEye’s ground center received the first detailed image of the earth’s surface (University of Pennsylvania campus), and in the near future, high-quality images from GeoEye-1 satellite will begin to flow regularly to the Google Earth mapping system, updated every 30 days. In order to keep up with a competitor, Microsoft managers made an agreement with another commercial satellite operator DigitalGlobe - he will supply digital photos for a similar project Virtual Earth. Microsoft, in particular, will receive the ImageLibrary library, which includes images of 460 million square meters. km surface of the earth.
From here .