With great sadness we lament the loss of Mr Mohammed El-Kadi, our business partner of many years.
A far-sighted visionary, at an early stage Mohammed El-Kadi put his hopes on the first commercial, very high resolution, optical earth observation satellites.
After his success with Space Imaging Middle East in Dubai, he founded European Space Imaging (EUSI) in Munich. Here he found competent partners in DFD and commercial firms in the Munich surroundings.
After concluding a first cooperation agreement in 2001, DFD initially operated a receiving station together with EUSI to acquire data from the first IKONOS satellites.
This was replaced in 2010 by a new ground station. Up to the present time it has acquired data from the latest WorldView satellite series. These data made it possible for DFD as one of the first research institutions worldwide to develop, together with its Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI), new applications for earth observation, such as mapping emergencies and natural disasters.
Our collaboration, which matured over the course of many years, was characterized by professionalism, creativity, trust and amicable solidarity. Mr El-Kadi died on 22 February of complications following a corona infection. He was 69 years old.
We grieve with the family of Mohammed El-Kadi, and with our partners and friends at EUSI and SIME.
We aim to further develop our cooperation with EUSI, building on the foundation laid by Mohammed El-Kadi.
Stefan Dech, Gunter Schreier, Erhard Diedrich and the entire team of the German Remote Sensing Data Center at DLR