Earth Observation

In July 2015 Planet Labs made a significant purchase in acquiring Lethbridge based Blackbridge and its Rapideye constellation of five satellites. Combined with Planet’s Dove satellites, they are now offering an ever expanding suite of imagery products, with the precision agriculture and mapping segments leading the way.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has revealed the final 72 candidates and provided profiles of those aiming to become one Canada’s next two astronauts. For the final 72 it’s an opportunity to chase a dream so few get a chance to. The prize at the end of the selection is years of training and at least one, if not more, opportunities to fly to the International …

In this weeks Short Cuts we talk about the upcoming budget, moonshots, the universe as a hologram, the making of the RADARSAT Satellite Constellation, our new feature Startup Files, our new Culture section and more.

In this weeks Short Cuts, Canada funds an instrument which will be key in conducting first-ever global survey of Earth’s surface water, exactEarth announces the results of its first year of operations as a public company, UrtheCast signs binding agreement with a government customer to buy two satellites in its OptiSAR constellation and more.

In this week Short Cuts the new year is off on a running start with news from several companies, CSA student grants to attend to joint CSA-ESA meetings, the AIAC is creating a new Labour Market Committee and much more.

In today’s Short Cuts: It was pretty quiet during the holidays but there were a couple of noteworthy items including the Governor General of Canada awarding the Order of Canada to 100 people including six from the space community, the Canadian Space Agency issuing a new tender notice for the MEOSAR Ground Segment Phase 2 and awarding two contracts, China releasing it’s next 5 year …

exactEarth announced today it had signed a contract with Antrix Corporation of India to provide Automatic Identification System (AIS) data services to the Indian Navy. The three year deal contract is valued at USD $1.75 million.

In today’s Short Cuts: Industry sources tell SpaceRef Canada they have serious concerns over the free trade deal with the European Union. GHGSat, which hopes to launch two new satellites in the short term, passes a milestone with its Claire satellite. The National Research Council announces an Enhanced Virtual Observatory for the scientific community and more. If you would like to submit a Short Cut, …

Free trade agreements are by their very nature a means of increasing trade between two or more countries. In the case of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the deal Prime Minister Trudeau signed in Brussels on October 30th could have a significant negative effect on Canada’s domestic space industry. Industry sources SpaceRef Canada spoke to are very concerned, with one saying …

The Canadian Space Agency issued a request for proposals (RFP) today with the aim of determining the feasibility of a sub-surface ice sounder as a hosted payload on NASA’s Next Mars Orbiter (NeMO) which is a concept mission that could be headed to Mars in 2022. Earlier this year NASA held an industry day to talk about this conceptual mission. NASA Watch obtained a copy …