Meet WorldView-2, the satellite that provided Australian authorities with the images that appear to show two objects in the Indian Ocean 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth that may be related to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
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Launched on October 8, 2009, and owned by US satellite company DigitalGlobe, WorldView-2 provides imagery at a resolution of approximately 50 cm. It takes a new image of any place on earth every 1.1 days (1 day , 2 hours and 24 minutes).
The satellite, among many others that DigitalGlobe owns, weighs 2800 kilograms, operates at an altitude of 770 kilometres, and is able to collect nearly 1 million square kilometres of imagery every single day, which is then distributed to those who pay for access to DigitalGlobe's imagery.
DigitalGlobe confirmed on Friday that it was the one who provided the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) with the satellite images that were captured on March 16, showing the two objects in the Indian Ocean.
"We have been informed by an Australian government official that it was our imagery Prime Minister Abbott referred to in his recent comments," the company said in a statement.
"Working with our customers, DigitalGlobe continues to task our satellites to collect imagery of a wide area that includes the waters around where the possible debris was identified."
A clue that DigitalGlobe's satellite was used lies in the images released on Thursday afternoon by AMSA to the media after its press conference, which said that DigitalGlobe owned the copyright of the images.
DigitalGlobe is the parent company of Tomnod, which has been progressively releasing select areas of satellite imagery for a crowd of more than three million to scour through.
The satellite company has not said if it will release imagery that encompasses the search area off the coast of Western Australia to the public on Tomnod.
"We're working to confirm further details," DigitalGlobe said.
"In the meantime, other customers including the US government and other governments have been receiving our imagery for their own search efforts."
A number of Australian government agencies pay DigitalGlobe for access to imagery generated by their satellites, including the Australian Antarctic Division and Geoscience Australia.
Tender documents show that Geoscience Australia alone has paid DigitalGlobe almost $1 million since July, 2012, for satellite imagery over Wide Bay in Queensland and of imagery over the Great Barrier Reef.
It's not clear through through tender documents if Australian intelligence agencies, such as Defence, also pay for access to DigitalGlobe's imagery, as Fairfax was unable to find contracts between them and DigitalGlobe.
DigitalGlobe said no conclusions have been reached about the origins of the objects shown in the imagery near Australia, and it was not aware that any subsequent search missions that have been able to locate them.
"But the experience again demonstrates the unparalleled geographic reach and persistence that satellite imagery provides for critical government missions and emergency response situations," it said.
It's unclear if DigitalGlobe has any restrictions placed upon it by the US government in who it shares its satellite imagery with.