Simonetta Di Pippo of UNOOSA presents DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-4 image of Saint Peter's Squareto His Holiness Pope Francis with the delegation looking on.[/caption] It was an amazing day, one of those days I won’t ever forget. During the meeting portion of the seminar, I had the opportunity to present how DigitaGlobe and Maxar Technologies provide support to humanitarian crises around the world and talk about DigitalGlobe’s purpose of “Seeing a Better World.” I gave the seminar attendees an overview of how DigitalGlobe and Maxar successfully balance our business goals as public company with doing “the right thing” supporting Global Development Organizations (GDOs) and government initiatives around the world. I discussed the European Space Agency’s new initiatives around helping the world with Josef Aschbacher, the ESA Director of Earth Observation. Maria Zuber, Vice President of Research at MIT and Chair of the National Science Board, and I chatted about DigitalGlobe’s university and educational outreach, as well as investments to expand the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning solutions leveraging geospatial information and imagery. [caption id="attachment_6288" align="aligncenter" width="794"]
While most of us can only dream about being an astronaut, I had the opportunity to meet two of them,Paolo Nespoli (far right in the photo) and Nicole Stott (far left in the photo). They each spent more than 100 days
aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. They both mentioned how fragile our planet
looked from space and how monitoring and observation from space is more important today than it’s ever been and the need to protect it. Second from the right is Remo Ruffini, President of the International Centre
for Relativistic Astrophysics (ICRA).[/caption] [caption id="attachment_6289" align="aligncenter" width="1214"]
It’s a little known fact outside the astronomy world that The Vatican has two space observatories. The Specola Vaticana is in Rome and the other, called Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), is located at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in Arizona. Walking around the Specola Vaticana, you can hear about history from Brother Guy Consolmagno, the director of the Vatican Observatory, and look at the incredible collection of books and meteorites. If you are planning a trip to Rome, look into visiting the Specola and meeting Brother Guy for yourself. It is a unique place to visit outside the standard tourism locations in Rome.[/caption]
Andrea Bersan is DigitalGlobe’s Vice President of Global Industry Business Development. He focuses on developing and sharing specific expertise in key industry markets, identifying early stage opportunities and defining mid-to-long term strategies for DigitalGlobe’s Commercial business. Andrea has worked for DigitalGlobe since 2005.