IKONOS was a commercial Earth observation satellite, and was the first to collect publicly available high-resolution imagery at 1- and 4-meter resolution.

The capability to observe Earth via space-based telescope has been called "one of the most significant developments in the history of the space age", and IKONOS brought imagery rivaling that of military spy satellites to the commercial market.

In April 1994 Lockheed was granted one of the first licenses from the U.S. Department of Commerce for commercial satellite high-resolution imagery.

[6] On 25 October 1995 partner company Space Imaging received a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to transmit telemetry from the satellite in the eight-gigahertz Earth exploration-satellite services band.

IKONOS-1 was launched on 27 April 1999 at 18:22 UTC from Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 6,[9][10] but Athena II rocket's payload fairing did not separate due to an electrical malfunction, resulting in the satellite failing to reach orbit and falling into the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean.

[12] In reaction to the loss of IKONOS-1, the spacecraft was renamed IKONOS[12][13] and its processing accelerated, resulting in a launch on 24 September 1999 at 18:22 UTC, also from Vandenberg aboard an Athena II rocket.

The spacecraft body was a hexagonal design of 1.83 by 1.57 meters (6.0 by 5.2 ft) and 817 kilograms (1,800 lb), with 1.5 kilowatts of power provided by three solar panels.