Transforming the World: One Image at a Time

THEY SAY OPPORTUNITY DANCES WITH those who are already on the dance floor. But, if you are Dr. Walter S. Scott, you find a way to make opportunity dance with you even when your foot is broken! The year was 1991 — one day after Scott’s bachelor party. His marriage was to take place in two weeks. And Scott was holed up in his room nursing a broken foot following an impassioned game of paintball with his best friend. This down time gave Scott time to work on a business plan he had been thinking about for a while.

The Cold War had ended. The world was set for a transformation. “I remember thinking at the time that any time there is change, there is opportunity,” says Scott, who was then handling top defense projects at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States.

Satellite imagery proved to be a key factor during the Cold War, enabling the US to make decisions based on fact, not fear. “The GIS industry was emerging, computing costs were going down, Internet had been introduced, and the government was mulling letting the private sector enter the satellite imaging business. I remember thinking — why can’t these technologies be applied to a broader group of users?”

Scott never went to business school and he didn’t have any experience formulating business plans. “But, I knew this exercise wherein you prove how stupid your idea is. And if by the end of the exercise, you can’t prove it is stupid, it might actually be worth doing,” he quips. WorldView Imaging Corporation was created in January 1992 — seven months before the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act was enacted.

WorldView Imaging went on to become the first private business to receive a high-resolution commercial remote sensing license under the landmark 1992 Act. Scott’s vision in creating and nurturing WorldView Imaging brought a marked shift in overall drive towards scalability and utility in space industry. Nonetheless, getting the company off the ground was no easy task.