TerraServer was founded in 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina with the simple purpose of finding a commercial market for satellite imagery and aerial photography. The company then forged a partnership with a Russian company, SOVINFORMSPUTNIK, with a cache of 2 meter, panchromatic satellite imagery (SPIN-2). It was this relationship that yielded a series of high-resolution satellite views of Area 51, Groom Lake, Nellis Air Force Base, and the Nevada Proving Grounds. On April 17, 2000, TerraServer became the first to release these images to the general public online, generating a wave of publicity and enough Internet traffic to down a major Internet provider for over 12 hours. In recent years, TerraServer has dramatically expanded its mapping selection by forging relationships with the leading imagery providers in the industry. The result is the greatest selection and highest quality aerial photos and satellite images found anywhere