As the first company in the United States to ever receive a license to operate a commercial radar satellite, RDL Space Corporation will sell images - and services to interpret and process those images - to various government and private users around the world.

Unlike the more commonly known optical satellites, SAR technology provides detailed images day or night, in any kind of weather. The satellite, Radar1, will be in a low earth orbit and travel completely around the earth fourteen times a day. It is scheduled to launch in 2001.

The license signing ceremony occurred in private Wednesday June 17, 1998 in the offices of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which received RDL's application in February 1997. The Department of Commerce license represents the authority and requirements from all other concerned U.S. Government agencies, including the State Department and the Department of Defense.

Autometric, a key SAR image processor for the U.S. Government in Desert Storm, is a partner with RDL Space Corporation in launching and operating Radar1.

"RDL is assembling a world class team to integrate and launch Radar1," said Dr. Raj Dutt, president and CEO of RDL, "U.S. allies can receive strategic information and benefit from advanced American space surveillance technologies without having to build a system of their own."

About RDL

Research & Development Laboratories (RDL) is a diversified aerospace company with sales in excess of $20 million in manufacturing, digital signal processing, systems engineering, management/operations and advanced communications systems. Founded in 1984, the company has performed innovative high-technology research and development for the U.S. Air Force, NORAD, the U.S. Navy, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the U.S. Space Command and its own commercial subsidiary companies, and has been ranked among the top 25 defense contractors in the Los Angeles area. Today RDL specializes in the development and application of a wide range of dual-use commercial and defense technologies.

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