On September 6th, the GeoEye-1 satellite took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, and now we’re seeing just how much clearer our maps are going to be.

The new satellite is co-sponsored by Google, the search engine giant, so that they can use the imagery in their Google Maps and Google Earth applications.  The first image was transmitted this week of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, which you can see pictured here.  (click the image for a larger view)  As you can see, the image is extremely crisp, but due to certain government regulations, you will never see the satellite’s full magnification, which some say would allow you to focus all the way down to a car’s license plate number.

Google does not have sole control over the new system, so it may take a while for the entire planet’s images to get updated, but you should see them being added to their mapping services soon.