The breathtaking HD satellite footage of Earth so accurate you can watch cars in the street and planes taking off



Footage reveals Tokyo, Bangkok, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Syria in HD

Shows planes taking off in Beijing



Footage was taken 600 kilometres above Earth by the SkySat-1 satellite



The satellite captured 90-second video clips at 30 frames per second

Skybox Imaging plans to sell the footage to businesses in the near future

It is like Google Maps - but live.

A San Francisco firm has released the first footage from a revolutionary satellite it is set to make available to the public.

The footage shows planes landing at Beijing airport in stunning detail, so that individual planes can easily be identified, while cars can be seen driving around the airport.



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A mine in Turkey captured using the Skybox satellite. Led by aerospace industry veteran Tom Ingersoll, Skybox has been working on additional satellites that should be easier to complete with Google's backing

The newly released images also show Port Fuad in Egypt, with boats clearly visible in the harbour. the Color Infrared Imagery was collected by SkySat-1 on February 14, 2014

In other footage cars are seen moving on roads and vessels travelling through shipping lanes - all from a satellite positioned 600 kms above the planet.



The video was taken by the SkySat-1 satellite and showcases high-resolution views of Tokyo, Bangkok, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Aleppo, Syria.

While it's currently available for free, the group, Skybox Imaging, plans to sell the footage to businesses in the near future.

SkySat-1, which was launched in November, captured up to 90-second video clips at 30 frames per second to create the footage.

The U.S. group is now planning a constellation of 24 satellites that will be able to cover almost the entire expanse of the Earth.



Its larger goal is to sell what it can analyse about the global economy to companies, providing details such as supply chain monitoring and the movement of humanitarian aid.

‘The most revolutionary fact is that SkySat-1 was built and launched for more than an order of magnitude less cost than traditional sub-meter imaging satellites,’ said Tom Ingersoll, chief executive of Skybox.

Satellites today are capable of taking imagery better than a metre in resolution, but they weigh thousands of kilograms. SkySat-1 is 20 times smaller than traditional satellites. The circuitry that drives it is about the size of a phone book and consumes less power than a 100w light bulb. ‘Their small size means we can afford to launch lots of satellites, and provide you lots of timely, sub-meter imagery and video, along with powerful derived analytics,’ the group said on their website. Satellites today are capable of taking imagery clearer than a metre in resolution, but they weigh thousands of kilograms. SkySat-1 is 20 times smaller than traditional satellites. Shown here is a view of Abu Dhabi

THE SKYSAT-1 SATELLITE

SkySat-1, which was launched in November, captured up to 90-second video clips at 30 frames per second. Satellites today are capable of taking imagery better than a metre in resolution, but they weigh thousands of kilograms. SkySat-1 is 20 times smaller than traditional satellites. The circuitry that drives it is about the size of a phone book and consumes less power than a 100w light bulb. The U.S. group, Skybox Imaging, is now planning a constellation of 24 satellites that will be able to cover almost the entire expanse of the Earth. SkySat-2, an identical version of SkySat-1, is scheduled to launch in early 2014.

SkySat-2, an identical version of SkySat-1, is scheduled to launch in early 2014.



The firm worked with Mapbox to create the Beijing video.

'This quick shot by Skybox’s SkySat-1 shows multiple planes landing at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) airport in Beijing on December 30, 2013,' said Mapbox's Paul Goodman.

'You can easily see a large plane landing on the runway at right.



Using the video’s timestamp and public flight logs, Bruno identified this plane as Air China Limited flight 1310, a wide-body Airbus 330 flying from Guangzhou to Beijing.



'Operating as a codeshare, that flight was also listed as Shenzhen Airlines 1310, United Airlines 7564, SAS 9510, Austrian 8010 and Lufthansa 7283.

'The idea of video from space is very new but the benefit of seeing movement and direction over many frames is amazing.



'Seeing the aircraft headed to a specific terminal provided context to help identify it and watching cars move down a road shows directionality useful for better road classification.'



San Francisco-based start-up, Skybox Imaging, used its SkySat-1 satellite to reveal high-resolution views of the Earth. Pictured here is Perth in Australia

SkySat-1, which was launched in November, is capable of capturing up to 90-second video clips at 30 frames per second. Pictured here is a view of Perth





The circuitry that drives SkySat-1 is about the size of a phone book and consumes less power than a 100w light bulb. The satellite took this high defintion view of Nice in France This video grab, taken by Skybox, reveals high-resolution views of Tokyo, Bangkok, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Syria (pictured)

SkySat-2, an identical version of SkySat-1, is scheduled to launch in early 2014. Pictured here is Somalia

The U.S. group, Skybox Imaging, is now planning a constellation of 24 satellites that will be able to cover almost the entire expanse of the Earth. Pictured here is a power plant in Maryland





