Just weeks after announcing their US$30 million Series B funding, GHGSat is moving quickly to get its next greenhouse gas emission detection satellites built. Today the company announced it had selected ABB as a supplier.
ABB, a large Swiss multinational company, has a subsidiary based in Quebec City which is known for developing a variety of sensors for Earth observation platforms including an interferometer subsystem for the Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT).
ABB will build payloads for GHGSat’s next three satellites. GHGSat is currently planning to build a constellation of 10 methane detecting satellites. The company currently has two satellites on-orbit, Claire, it’s initial demonstration satellite and Iris (GHGSat-C1). Hugo (GHGSat-C2) which is scheduled for launch in December, has a payload built by ABB. GHGSat hopes to have the constellation complete by 2022.
Commenting on the deal, Stephane Germain, CEO, GHGSat said, “with GHGSat-C2, ABB has proven that they have the technical expertise and manufacturing capacity to support GHGSat’s growth. We are looking forward to this next phase of our partnership with ABB to rapidly expand our constellation.”
Marc Corriveau, General Manager ABB Measurement & Analytics Canada, also provided a comment, saying “we are currently seeing extensive innovation brought about by private initiatives in the space industry. At ABB we have built up a unique heritage in this sector over the decades helping scientists better understand the composition and evolution of our atmosphere. Our expertise in space optics and sensor development for industrial applications means that we are exceptionally well positioned to play a key role in GHGSat-C2. We are looking forward to collaborating on this exciting new project.”