Soar supports community GoFundMe project to release historically significant satellite imagery.

April 20, 2022

Soar helped one of their community members share special declassified spy satellite imagery with the world by supporting their personal GoFundMe initiative.

Community and Inclusivity are two of Soar’s company values. As such, the company is always looking for ways to support map creators and enthusiasts in the community.

One way Soar connects with the community is via their Discord channel, which is where they sparked a discussion with Soar user, Harry Stranger from Queensland, Australia.

Harry originally discovered Soar on Twitter, intrigued by the company’s work in the satellite imagery space.

Harry Stranger

“I’m always curious to browse different platforms that give the public access to satellite imagery and Soar definitely stood out to me due to being community-driven.” said Harry.

“Being able to browse satellite imagery, drone images, maps etc. uploaded by others in the community, being able to comment on those images and highlight areas of interest is unlike anything else I’ve used, and I love that.”

After chatting with Soar staff about his interest in satellite imagery time lapses, Harry shared some of his work via Twitter. That’s when Soar staff noticed his GoFundMe mission to source and share declassified spy satellite imagery from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

Cape Canaveral, Florida, KH-4A Declassified, 1968-12-18 (left). Vandenberg Space Force Base California. KH-7 Declassified, 1967-02-09 (right).

“This all started in late 2021 when I was browsing the USGS Earth Explorer page and I saw the option to download images from old spy satellites.” said Harry.

As a bit of a history nerd, I loved the thought of being able to use these high-resolution images to help illustrate the growth of the global space industry… However, a lot of the images there needed to be scanned at full resolution… and I just couldn’t afford to do it myself, so that’s when this GoFundMe idea started.”

Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia KH-7 Declassified, 1966-04-25 (left). John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York. KH-9.16 Declassified, 1980-09-08 (right).

As the imagery was historically significant, Soar knew it was important to share. As part of their goal to make map and imagery data accessible to everyone in the world, they wanted to help Harry out. So the company topped up his GoFundMe, providing the last $750 Harry needed to achieve his $2,000 goal.

“Soar’s generous donation has been an incredible help to the fundraiser! And it’s not only the money, but the very insightful and friendly staff who have helped me out” said Harry.

“As I work to upload all of the images to Soar, I know that it’s the perfect platform to share these images with the world. It’s so much easier to browse images there, instead of just downloading the single images and browsing without a base map for context.”

“I’m incredibly thankful for everything the Soar team has done for this fundraiser!

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on the Soar. platform (left). Close up of the Kennedy Space Center, Florida (right).

”Harry hopes by sharing these images on Soar, he’ll help tell the story of Earth’s early space program. He wants people from all over the world to browse the imagery and comment to share their thoughts too.

“There are so many missing pieces of many puzzles, and, with this imagery, we as a community can work together to document how timelines looked back then,” he said.

“Soar will make it incredibly easy for the community to work together and identify what we are looking at in these images.”

You can view and interact with the images on Harry’s Soar profile.

If you’re interested in having Soar support your community map, satellite, or drone image projects, reach out via the contact information on our Press Page.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China. International Space Station imagery on the Soar platform (left). Close up of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China.(right).

view harry's maps
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This press release was written by:

Cahli Samata

Cahli is the Marketing Manager at Soar, leading the company’s marketing activities with an amazing, creative team. She has degrees in science and communications and loves any opportunity to combine the two. Outside work, you’ll find Cahli singing with her cover band, inline skating around the city, and babying her dog.

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