Tag Archives: Satellite Constellations

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 …

Recently, there has been noteworthy news related to small satellites. First and significantly, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released details of new applications from companies wanting to deploy constellations of small satellites, most in non-geostationary orbits (NGSO). This included applications from two Canadian companies, Kepler Communications and Telesat. The total number of planned NGSO satellites in applications filled since June of this year, is …

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released details this week of applicants seeking to build a variety of satellite constellations. The most dramatic application came from SpaceX who are looking to build 4,425 small satellites to be used in low earth orbit. From the Canadian perspective, there were two applications, that of Kepler Communications who are based out of Toronto, and Ottawa’s Telesat.

Among the 13 recommendations from the Canada – UK Colloquium report, Space: Obstacles and Opportunities, is the recommendation that “Canada should recognize Space as a component in its Critical National Infrastructure”.

A team of students from Concordia University won the third Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC), the second time a team from Concordia has won the competition. The competition wrapped up just over a week ago at the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa. Space Concordia, as they are known, also won the inaugural challenge in 2012.

At 11:57 p.m. EDT (8:57 a.m. Indian local time) the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV-34 rocket with 20 satellites onboard flawlessly launched. It was a milestone mission for India as it continues to showcase its developing launch capability. Two Canadian small satellites, M3MSat and CLAIRE, were successfully launched as part of the secondary payload.

Defence Minister Harjit S. Sajjan announced today that National Defence had awarded a contract to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd (MDA) to deliver the Polar Epsilon 2 system. The delayed project first issued a Request for Information in late 2013.