As pirate attacks continue on ships in the faraway Gulf of Aden, a satellite company with major operations in Thornton is helping in the effort to stop them.
The Ikonos satellite, which orbits 423 miles above Earth and is operated by GeoEye, snapped a high-resolution picture of oil supertanker MV Sirius Star in November, a few days after it was reported missing by the U.S. Navy, according to GeoEye spokesman Mark Brender.
“We were able to precisely locate the ship about 5 miles off the Somali coast,” said Brender, who directed the satellite to snap images in the area after reading press reports about the ship’s location.
The 1,090-foot-long vessel is owned by a Saudi oil company and remains hijacked. Somali pirates reportedly sought $15 million in ransom for the tanker, which was carrying $100 million of oil and 25 crew members.
Ikonos was launched in September 1999 by Space Imaging, a Thornton-based company that merged with Orbimage Holdings in 2006 to form GeoEye.
Dulles, Va.-based GeoEye employs 464, including about 130 in Thornton.
The company took the initiative to shoot the image to show “that commercial satellite imagery is a tool to monitor the maritime environment,” Brender said.
Another pirate attack occurred in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, but the crew of a Greek oil tanker fired high pressure water jets to fight off heavily armed Somali pirates. It was the fourth pirate attack of the new year.
Pirates attacked 111 ships around the Gulf of Aden in 2008, hijacking 42 of them and earning tens of millions in ransom.
Commercial satellite imagery may also be a tool for treasure hunters.
A musician from Los Angeles claims that he used Google to spot a buried treasure in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of south Texas, according to a report last week by the Houston Chronicle. The treasure hunter has asked a federal court to allow him to pursue the find, which he says may be a 19th century boat and its cargo of gold and silver, according to the report.
Google Maps and Earth use satellite images from GeoEye and other firms. Brender said he’s not sure whether the images the treasure hunter viewed were shot by GeoEye’s satellites.
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com
