Companies like DigitalGlobe and GeoEye are capturing massive quantities of global sensor data and making it commercially available at marginal cost.

FORBES: Location Intelligence - The Future Looks Bright

These pictures of the search area are being provided by two firms that supply information to Google Earth: GeoEye and DigitalGlobe.

ECONOMIST: The high-tech hunt for a missing adventurer

The market for sub one metre satellite imagery has become dominated in recent years by two US companies - DigitalGlobe and GeoEye.

BBC: Sharp-eyed Pleiades returns first pictures

The proposed cuts are likely to have an impact on long-term contracts between the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and U.S.-based satellite-imagery providers DigitalGlobe Inc.

WSJ: U.S. to Trim Commercial-Satellite Use

GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based firm that focuses on "emerging security challenges, " said the image released by DigitalGlobe shows the contrail, or vapor trail, and rocket exhaust plume of the launch vehicle.

CNN: Photo reportedly shows N. Korean rocket in flight

Its chief competitor, DigitalGlobe, is headquartered in Longmont, Colo.

FORBES: In The Beltway Orbit: GeoEye