OK then, I've been finding a lot more out about this.
1) NASA "is an agency of the United States Government". [source:Wikipedia]
2) These maps that were bought are not satellite images, they are
[[digital raster graphic]]s (i.e. topographic maps). (source:
http://ransom.redjar.org/original_page.html)
3) They seem to cover only the United States (source:
http://libre.redjar.org/maps/data/ and
http://topomaps.usgs.gov/drg/duplicate_drg.html)
4) "USGS aerial photographs covering the United States since the
1950's and worldwide satellite data from the early 1970's to the
present can be ordered directly from the USGS."
(
http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/aerial/aerial.html) I have no
idea how detailed these are.
Anthony