Satellite Images Up For Sale

The first image from the high-resolution commercial satellite Ikonos has arrived. CBS News Correspondent Larry Blunt reports the amazing clarity of detail raises hopes for its use in a variety of industries, but also fears about its potential for spying.

The image is of unprecedented clarity for a commercial satellite, showing such detail of the Washington Monument that one can easily count the cars in the parking lot.

The picture was taken September 30 from the satellite owned by Space Imaging of Thornton. It was launched September 24 on a Lockheed Martin Athena II rocket.

It can detect objects on the Earth's surface as small as a card table, or 39 inches square -- a level of accuracy and detail in photography once limited to spy satellites. Before Ikonos, 5 meters was about as much detail as you could get for public use.

So what is the benefit for the average person?

According to John Copple, C.E.O. of Space Imaging, the satellite images can be used in agriculture: "We can understand diseases in crops, and we can understand the types of crops that are being grown in each area. This combined knowledge helps farmers grow the right crops in the right places."

The images produced are also expected to be useful in urban planning, environmental monitoring, mapping, assessing the scope of natural disasters, oil and gas exploration and for the planning of communication networks.

Copple released the monument image on Tuesday. Its level of detail would include individual trees, boats, ships and roads -- but not individual people, the company said.

Many are worried that the commercial availability of high-resolution satellite images will abet malicious intentions like casing a bank or industrial spying.

Copple thinks this is unreasonable. "There are simpler, cheaper ways to case a bank," he explains. "There are much easier ways to spy on cars being produced in Japan or in Detroit. This technology is really not great for doing that; it's good for looking at things at a point in time."

The images are expected to be available to commercial customers this year, officials said. Company spokesman Mark Brender told The New York Times that prices will range from $30 to $600 per square mile. A minimum order of $1,000 is required.

The satellite orbits about 400 miles above the Earth at a speed of about 4.5 miles per second and circles the globe 14 times a day. Data is stored in a satellite archive and can be made available to customers in as little as a few hours.