Skip to content

China’s high definition earth observation satellite Gaofen-1 has been formally inducted into service, it was announced ending December

According to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), the satellite has undergone eight months of in-orbit tests since it blasted off April 26. It has met requirements and performed even better than expected by sending high quality photos, Xinhua reported.

The satellite will help in geographic and resources surveys, environment and climate change monitoring, precision agriculture, disaster relief and city planning.

Its major users will be the land and resources, environmental protection and agriculture ministries.

Gaofen-1 means China is self-sufficient in more high resolution earth observation data and its use of remote sensing satellites has entered a new phase, said Xu Dazhe, head of the SASTIND.

Gaofen-1 provided data on the Lushan earthquake in Sichuan, floods in northeast China and smog in north and east China during the test period. It also provided Pakistan with image data after the Sep 24 earthquake.

Gaofen-1 is the first of the five or six satellites to be launched for high definition earth observation before 2016. It is also the first low orbit remote sensing satellite designed to be used for more than five years.

It carries two 2m panchromatic and 8m multi-spectral high definition cameras and four 16m resolution wide angle cameras, which means it can capture images of a car or even a bicycle on earth.

Wang Chengwen, deputy head of the Gaofen project, said Gaofen-1’s efficiency at earth observation is much greater compared to other remote sensing satellites.

The Gaofen-2 satellite is scheduled to be launched in early 2014.

Source

(16 December 2013) Measurements from ESA’s CryoSat satellite show that the volume of Arctic sea ice has significantly increased this autumn.

The volume of ice measured this autumn is about 50% higher compared to last year.

In October 2013, CryoSat measured about 9000 cubic km of sea ice – a notable increase compared to 6000 cubic km in October 2012.

Over the last few decades, satellites have shown a downward trend in the area of Arctic Ocean covered by ice. However, the actual volume of sea ice has proven difficult to determine because it moves around and so its thickness can change.

CryoSat was designed to measure sea-ice thickness across the entire Arctic Ocean, and has allowed scientists, for the first time, to monitor the overall change in volume accurately.

About 90% of the increase is due to growth of multiyear ice – which survives through more than one summer without melting – with only 10% growth of first year ice. Thick, multiyear ice indicates healthy Arctic sea-ice cover.

This year’s multiyear ice is now on average about 20%, or around 30 cm, thicker than last year.
ESA’s ice mission

“One of the things we’d noticed in our data was that the volume of ice year-to-year was not varying anything like as much as the ice extent – at least in 2010, 2011 and 2012,” said Rachel Tilling from the UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, who led the study.

“We didn’t expect the greater ice extent left at the end of this summer’s melt to be reflected in the volume. But it has been, and the reason is related to the amount of multiyear ice in the Arctic.”

While this increase in ice volume is welcome news, it does not indicate a reversal in the long-term trend.

“It’s estimated that there was around 20 000 cubic kilometres of Arctic sea ice each October in the early 1980s, and so today’s minimum still ranks among the lowest of the past 30 years,” said Professor Andrew Shepherd from University College London, a co-author of the study.

The findings from a team of UK researchers at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling were presented last week at the American Geophysical Union’s autumn meeting in San Francisco, California.

“We are very pleased that we were able to present these results in time for the conference despite some technical problems we had with the satellite in October, which are now completely solved,” said Tommaso Parrinello, ESA’s CryoSat Mission Manager.

In October, CryoSat’s difficulties with its power system threatened the continuous supply of data, but normal operations resumed just over a week later.

With the seasonal freeze-up now underway, CryoSat will continue its routine measurement of sea ice. Over the coming months, the data will reveal just how much this summer’s increase has affected winter ice volumes.

Source

(4, Jan 2014) The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) is now providing an additional service: Overview of ongoing satellite mapping events.

This service provides a short overview of the identified ongoing satellite mapping activities related to humanitarian disasters. It is intended for disaster managers, operations centres, desk officers and others that need syntheses of what goes on in this field. The service is operated by the GDACS mapping & satellite imagery coordination mechanism: UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). When referring to this summary, please credit: “GDACS, UNITAR/UNOSAT” .

For comments, questions and to submit information on satellite image derived products, please contact: maps@gdacs.org

This summary will be sent out on a regular basis, every 1-2 weeks, depending on the activity level in this domain. The first summary created as of 4 January is available at GDACS

Source

Plagues of locusts that destroy crop yields cause stark devastation and threaten food security across North Africa every year.

DMC International Imaging (DMCii) has been helping to monitor and tackle the locusts, alongside their colleagues at the Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) in coordination with the National Institute for Plant protection (INPV).

DMCii’s 22m resolution, multispectral satellite images can help to predict the location of the locusts’ breeding grounds accurately, where the swarms have been and where they are most likely to head towards.

A satellite imagery campaign, beginning before the summer months, assessed the condition of the vegetation, this was then analysed alongside weather forecasts to create locust forecasts and focus the application of pesticides to prevent the spread of swarms.

The images below were captured by the DMC constellation UK-DMC 2 satellite on the 26th September. The red is healthy green vegetation, which allows DMCii to work alongside ASAL to track the locust plague’s movements.

Each swarm can contain billions of locusts, and each one can eat its weight in food every day. This makes for a devastating effect on crops, as they can strip whole fields in minutes.

Dave Hodgson, the Managing Director of DMCii, said: “Food security is an ongoing effort for DMCii and tackling locust plagues in Algeria with our colleagues at ASAL is one way we can use our satellite imagery for benefit of the people on the ground.”

Source DMCii

Paris, France 7th January 2014 – In 2013 AeroGRID added 1.5 million km² of high resolution aerial orthophotos of Europe to its WMS servers and now provides access to 25 countries and 4.6 million km².

The comprehensive metadata with detailed accuracy specifications mean that users can be confident the imagery will provide a sound basis for their projects, at a very affordable price. A further 850,000 km² of territory is ready to be added to this significant online resource.

“AeroGRID’s WMS archive is by far the most extensive resource of up-to-date high resolution, high accuracy, aerial photography of Europe currently available,” said Miles Taylor AeroGRID’s General Manager. In addition our servers are fast and resilient, delivering performance and peace of mind.

“The terms we offer bring imagery costs per km² down to a level where European GIS users can now easily afford to add AeroGRID WMS as their accurate base data resource,” continued Taylor.

Current WMS access is available for the following countries:Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Kosovo, Italy, Luxemburg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland (part), Portugal, Serbia (part), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine

Coverage of the following countries can be made available on request:Albania, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia (full), Slovakia, Slovenia

About AeroGRID

AeroGRID is a one-stop-shop for international archived aerial and satellite imagery providing speedy access to aerial photography from over 60 countries with off-the-shelf high resolution satellite orthophotos for many others. By marshalling an impressive network of partner’s survey aircraft and high resolution digital cameras AeroGRID is able to extend its coverage around the world. Much of this extensive image library is now available via WMS with WFS metadata, the standard protocols for streaming georeferenced data over the Internet to web based applications, GIS and CAD software.

www.aerogrid.net
For further information please contact: Miles Taylor
T: + 33 671 156 116 // E: info@aerogrid.net

Jan H. Stel joined ICIS in 2000 as professor in Ocean Space and Human Activity. His current research is focussing at integrated assessment of complex societal issues, ocean governance, sustainable use of the Exclusive Economic Zone, human activities in the coastal area and capacity building mechanism.


Background

Q: Thank you professor Stel for your time, firstly, tell us a bit about the type of work you do. Could you give us your background and your activities in your organization?

I am trained as a paleontologist in the Netherlands, and did my thesis on the paleobiology of some 400 million years old reefs in the Baltic. Next I became a science manager for oceanographic research for most of my career. Since 2000, I became a half time professor in ‘Ocean Space and Human Activity’ at the University of Maastricht.

As a science manager, I organized the Second Dutch-Indonesian Snellius Expedition in the late eighties and the Dutch Indian Ocean Expedition in the early nineties. Both expeditions were embedded in a five year program of collaboration and capacity building. Finally I developed the Dutch Antarctic research program, and was one of the founding members of the DROMLAN air network in 2002, linking Cape Town, with the Antarctic. At the European level I created around 1985, a European consortium that still is participating in the Ocean Drilling Program. At the global and regional level I was involved in the early development of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), founder of a series of regional GOOS bodies on behalf of the IOC, and strongly involved in EuroGOOS.

Q: What kind of fields are you personally involved in or focused on now?

In Maastricht, I was part of the International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS). In the beginning the institute was led by Jan Rotmans (http://www.drift.eur.nl/), and had a focus on integrated assessment as well as transition management. Later its focus changed towards sustainability. When I came to ICIS in 2000, I hoped to be able to link ocean sciences with social sciences in order to address the interactions between human activities and the environment of which we are just a minor part. This should be done in an integrated way, from a system science approach, and taking the ocean as a starting point. For this, I re-introduced the 4D notion of ocean space. Ocean literacy is another issue that I am currently dealing with. I am a popular science writer for some 35 years, and ‘Horizon 2020’ is finally offering the urgently needed opportunities in this.

Q: How important are earth observation satellites to the work that you are doing?

Answering this question is a matter of perspective. From a global perspective, earth observations are vital for our understanding of ocean space. In coastal areas and the Exclusive Economic Zones, earth observations form the backbone of large variety of industries. Yet, for exploring ocean space as such, observations by satellites provide, at best, just half of the observing system we need. Here underwater drones etc. are taking over. But these data should, of course, be integrated with the ones from the satellites.

Political Agenda:

Q: The European Commission has recently announced that it has “approved a fund of approximately €3.8 billion to send six satellites into space to monitor the impacts of climate change.”…How important do you consider this programme and its potential impacts on political decisions?

From an ocean space perspective, I have mixed feeling about this. When I was involved in GMES and EuroGOOS I noticed that the (outer) space lobby was well organized and strong. On the other hand the ocean science lobby was and still is, weak. As a consequence most funding and new opportunities go to the space sector. ESA’s newly funded missions – the ‘sentinels’ – to which you are referring, are an excellent example of the strong position of this organization and it industrial allies. But, small industries often being the catalysts of innovation hardly benefit from it. This does, however, not at all mean that the ‘sentinels’ are not needed. They form a smart “bridge” between national and European level investments to underpin Copernicus, and to monitor the polluting effects of human activities. Although the ocean space component is more or less lacking, it will influence future EU policy making.

Q: Will the implementation of Copernicus help strengthen the political commitment towards action linked to climate change?

Political commitments mostly are rather transitory. Copernicus has a focus on environmental monitoring. Its scope should thus be broader that just climate change. The climate change community is, however, becoming an important and, especially in the media, popular force. And that’s good as we really have to change our attitude. With this I mean that the present and continuously increasing scale and magnitude of human activities are indeed a threat for the Earth System, and by that for mankind and its human activities. As Copernicus will deliver more information about environmental change and climate change, I assume that the political commitment to do something about it will indeed increase. The problem is, however, what will we do? Will there be a focus on new technology or will sustainability of human activities be the focus? In this context I am afraid that the widely advocated notion of the Anthropocene, which I consider as a misleading and potentially treacherously, will lead to technological ‘solutions’. With the Anthropocene we are moving towards thin ice.

Q: How important is the role played by GOOS? Will the suppression of the I-GOOS panel strengthen or weaken the actions taken by the group?

With the IOC one should watch for too much bureaucracy. I remember that in the early phases GOOS was functioning rather well. I think that deleting I-GOOS from the management structure is a good idea. It might help to generate more support as well as to increase the needed capacity building and outreach aspects of the program.
Coming back to GOOS, I think it is one of the most important initiatives of the IOC since the late eighties. Its implementation is a slow and tedious process. But it is moving forwards. Last year some 65% of GOOS was established, whereas initiatives such as Argo are a major success. They are opening up real ocean space information, which we urgently need.

Q: How does GOOS fit with GEO/GEOSS? Are the two organisations complementary? Do you consider that steps could be taken to improve their co-operation?

GEO is a US led initiative that matured after the Johannesburg Summit in 2002. At the moment one is discussing its continuation and funding until 2025. It is all about the global coordination of earth observations. As such it was and is an interesting initiative. GOOS, which developed after Rio 1992, is the ocean (space) component of it.

Industry:

Q: What role do you perceive that the private sector plays in monitoring environmental and climate change and can more be done to make it more effective?

In Europe this has been a difficult issue. For a long time EuroGOOS did not want to work together with the industry at all. Even in GMES it was not easy for the industry to participate as well as in most of the EU Framework programs. But with Copernicus downstream activities have finally become much more important. I think that the industry should participate fully within Copernicus. Moreover, it should also participate in future comparable programs to explore and exploit ocean space. There is a shared responsibility and opportunity. A good example how this can work was the marine component of EUREKA. Within EUROMAR, for which I organized the first EUROMAR Market in 1988, a large number of innovative products were developed.

Q: What is your view of the outlook for the value adding services sector? What factors are most important to this industry?

Real access to markets, fair competition with public institutions and seed money for innovation.

Q: How can collaboration between government and the private sector be improved?

For that there is a rather straightforward answer: one needs funding, seed funding. Again I refer to my experience with EUROMAR. Based on this, I suggest the availability of focused funding at the EU level.

Q: EARSC has recently supported the policy to make data from Copernicus Sentinel satellites free and open. However, some private companies selling data from their own satellites have been and are uncomfortable with this policy. In consequence it is clear that the boundary between what is done by government (through public agencies) and by industry (through private investment) needs to be more clearly defined ie who should do what in the future. This is necessary in order that private funds can be deployed to invest not just in new satellite systems but equally into new VA products and services. In your experience is this also important when it comes to developing monitoring systems for environmental and climate change?

Well, I am a little bit puzzled by the attitude of the industry you are mentioning. I would expect the industry to be more daring and identifying its own markets. On the other hand the ‘protection’ of downstream activities of public agencies is indeed a reason for concern. My impression is that, in Europe, governments, and as a consequence the EU, sometimes sets double standards in these situations. That is ‘killing’ for small, innovative companies in these fields. This should be stopped.
In contrast, the situation in the US has always been open, and has led to a large innovative downstream business sector.

Technical:

Q: Climate change missions will contribute to the collection of key data sets? What ground-breaking innovations do you consider the upcoming missions will bring to this field?

The Sentinal-1 missions for instance will give continuity in SAR data, and as such build on the highly successful ERS-1 and 2, Envisat, and Radarsat missions. The June 2013 Special Issue of Oceanography, gives an impressive overview of the possibilities of ocean remote sensing with SAR. The polar orbiting Sentinel-1 is highly important in a time when there are a lot of uncertainties how global warming will affect the Arctic and North Atlantic. That there will be large (system) changes goes without saying. As a consequence this capability will assist human activities in a time of transition. I expect that the emphasis of the market will be on exploration activities at higher latitudes.

Q: Environmental satellite missions will gather data from not so easily accessible areas, such as deserts and oceans. Do you consider that such missions can play a role linked to increasing economic activity?

Certainly. For instance, in relation to the opening of the Arctic. One should, however, realize that most of these activities are new human activities in a part of ocean space we hardly know. So, they are at least risky from a societal point of view. Again we are exploiting, as we did after James Cook’s ocean exploration in the late 18th century, an environment we hardly know. As a consequence, I am afraid, that again humans will pay price for that. It is the same with near future deep ocean space exploitation of untapped resources such as deep sea mining in Exclusive Economic Zones. I am not saying that we should not do this. I am just saying one should better know what we are doing. And that means a large coordinated investment in the exploration of ocean space, as we do now for outer space. It is bizarre. We are investing so much money in the exploration of Mars, while we ‘forget’ to invest in Earth’s ocean space. And here we live! Something must be wrong with our species. I am convinced that if we would only invest just ten percent of these funds in ocean space exploration, the economic return would be a many fold of the one we are now getting from outer space exploration.

Q: What dedicated missions do you consider it important to develop, eg for carbon-monitoring, for atmosphere or for water etc?

I am afraid your readership will not like this. But I would suggest to place these missions on hold for some time. I suggest that one should invest in ocean space exploration and its supporting international infrastructure. By this our insights in the ocean and earth systems will increase rapidly, and help us to focus. Moreover, we have to integrate the social sciences in future ocean research.

In the dedicated missions you mentioned in your question, the link with societal needs and possible downstream services is easily understood. In what I am proposing this link is more difficult to see. The main reason is that research and monitoring of the inner ocean space is just at its infancy; but it is starting. Yet, one could imagine that a better understanding and monitoring of human activity related ‘hotspots’, like the development of dead zones, algal blooms and may be fishery resources in 4D, will lead to a new type of downstream products. It should also be stressed that for this the present earth observations should be coupled with the information from within ocean space. I think that even such an efficient coupling will lead to new insights and, as a consequence, products.

Q: In recent years, we have heard many warnings about global-scale water shortages, but at the same time we have seen an increase in the number of floods and other water-related disasters around the world. What could an EO mission will be able to achieve in relation to such climate change?

Not much, I think. Better monitoring might lead to being prepared better. But it does not solve the problem. We are the problem, by the way. So again we need new approaches to tackle this issue.

Finally

Q: What do you consider to be the three most important steps to take to protect the human population against the effects of climate change and what will be the key contributions made by satellite technology to each of these?

My problem with this question is that climate change is phrased in such a way that it is something threatening for us. But, who caused the problem? We did! Through our human activities! For me, climate change is an environmental or earth system expression of global scale pollution by human activities. Maybe, our population is too large. I do not know. But history shows us that, as in the 14th century in Europe, when natural climate change was taking place, the system takes care of that.

But I am afraid that the Anthropocene believers will advocate technological solutions for problems of which we the uncertainties do not know well, and that politicians just will go for it. In my opinion we really should live in balance with nature, know our place as just one, be it rather creative species within it, and care more for the environment we are part of.

Coming back to your question, I think that satellite technology is crucial to assist in a transition towards sustainability of society. To be able to access this process one certainly needs environmental information that satellite technology allows for.

Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has released KOMPSAT-5 images acquired for the calibration purpose. KOMPSAT-5 was launched on August 22, 2013 from the Yasny launch base of Russia and under early operation and calibration.

During the early operation and calibration phase, all the functionalities of satellite have been verified and now it is under calibration of payload system. The released images are acquired for the verification of payload performance

KOMPSAT-5 carries X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for earth observation, and is capable of day-and-night imaging under all weather condition.

It provides three operation modes: High Resolution Mode (spotlight mode) to provide 1 m resolution with 5 km by 5 km swath, Standard Mode (strip mode) to provide 3 m resolution with 30 km swath and Wide Swath Mode (ScanSAR mode) to provide 20 m resolution with 100 km swath at 550 km altitude.

The KOMPSAT-5 CAL/VAL team will complete the calibration of the radar instrument and optimizing the data processing chain by the end of February 2014.

After completion of calibration, KOMPSAT-5 will be operated to provide products for various applications such as security and defense, image interpretation, mapping, land and natural resource management, environmental monitoring, disaster monitoring and more. The commercial data of KOMPSAT-5 are expected from the second quarter of 2014.

According to Korean Space Development Plan, KARI will launch KOMPSAT-3A equipped with VHR optical and medium resolution IR sensor in 2014 and KOMPSAT-6 equipped with VHR SAR in 2019 in addition to existing VHR optical and SAR systems such as KOMPSAT-2, KOMPSAT-3 and KOMPSAT-5.

Such earth observation programs are planned and developed to meet the strong needs of earth observation data in public and commercial sectors. It is expected that provision of various sensor data and data continuities foster the applications and services based on the earth observation data.

KOMPSAT-5 is the first Korean radar satellite developed by KARI through the collaboration with Thales Alenia Space Italy, developer of COSMO-SkyMed payload.

The KARI is responsible for the operation and public use of the KOMPSAT-5 data, and Satrec Initiative is in charge of commercial marketing of KOMPSAT constellation, a unique combination of VHR optical data and SAR data, including KOMPSAT-2, KOMPSAT-3 and KOMPSAT-5.

Source

Washington – Environmental research and weather forecasting will advance with the February 2014 launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory.

NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), principal partners in the GPM launch, announced December 26 they plan to send the new instrument into space February 27, 2014. GPM’s mission will be to provide more advanced and frequent observations of precipitation worldwide. Greater accuracy in measurement of rain and snowfall will enhance scientific understanding of the water and energy cycles that influence planetary climate.

“Knowing rain and snow amounts accurately over the whole globe is critical to understanding how weather and climate impact agriculture, fresh water availability and responses to natural disasters,” said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, in a press release.

Even though the United States and Japan are taking the lead on GPM’s launch, the data it returns will be pooled with satellite data being collected by instruments supported by an array of international agencies, including the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, the Centre National D‘Études Spatiales of France and the Indian Space Research Organisation.

U.S. scientific agencies participating in the collaborative project include NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and the Department of Defense.

“We will use data from the GPM mission not only for Earth science research but to improve weather forecasting and respond to meteorological disasters,” said Shizuo Yamamoto, executive director of JAXA. “We would also like to aid other countries in the Asian region suffering from flood disasters by providing data for flood alert systems. Our dual-frequency precipitation radar, developed with unique Japanese technologies, plays a central role in the GPM mission.”

GPM will build on the data from a previous mission, the Tropical Rainfall Monitoring Mission (TRMM), another NASA-JAXA collaboration launched in 1997. The mission showed the benefit of merging rainfall information from a number of different satellites, according to NASA. The mission also confirmed the merit of different data collection methods, which helped improve tropical storm tracking and estimation of rainfall volume and timing.

Tropical Rainfall had a limited mission to measure moderate to heavy rainfall in the tropics. GPM will be measuring precipitation globally, in the mid-latitudes, the tropics and the poles, with the additional capability to measure light precipitation particles.

GPM will also carry a specialized radar instrument that has never operated in space before and will provide three-dimensional measurements of storm fronts. Other instruments will be set to collect data that will provide further insight into how precipitation processes might be affected by human activities, according to a GPM mission concept statement.

GPM was assembled in the United States at NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and shipped to the launch site at Tanegashima Space Center on Japan’s Tanegashima Island in November. In mid-December, engineers and technicians tested each of the craft’s systems to ensure that it is ready for launch.

Source

(Dec 2013) MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Skybox Imaging (Skybox) announced today the release of the world’s first high-resolution, high-definition video of Earth taken by a commercial remote sensing satellite.

These videos were taken by SkySat-1, the first of Skybox’s planned constellation of 24 satellites, and showcase high-resolution views of Tokyo, Bangkok, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Aleppo, Syria. The video clips have not yet been calibrated or tuned.

SkySat-1 captures up to 90-second video clips at 30 frames per second. The resolution is high enough to view objects like shipping containers that impact the global economy while maintaining a level of clarity that does not determine human activity. To watch the video in 1080p HD resolution, please view on Skybox’s YouTube channel here

SkySat-1 also captures some of the highest quality color imagery of any commercial satellite and is capable of sub-meter native color and near-infrared imagery.

“The most revolutionary fact is that SkySat-1 was built and launched for more than an order of magnitude less cost than traditional sub-meter imaging satellites,” said Tom Ingersoll, CEO of Skybox. “This extremely high performance satellite is made possible by proprietary technologies developed by Skybox, including the integrated satellite and imaging systems designs, which enable Skybox to launch a constellation of satellites that can provide imagery timeliness, quality and dependability that was never before possible.”

The business applications for satellite imagery and now, dynamic satellite video, are innumerable – ranging from supply chain monitoring to maritime awareness, industrial plant activity monitoring to environmental and humanitarian relief monitoring.

“This is an important inflection point for the remote sensing industry and for businesses of all sizes around the globe,” said Dan Berkenstock, co-founder and chief product officer of Skybox. “This milestone demonstrates that high-quality, high-resolution imagery can now be delivered in a timely, accessible and affordable way. By leveraging Silicon Valley web technologies, we’re pioneering a data platform that is leading a new generation of applications for the global markets of today and for new markets yet to be realized.”

Skybox has raised $91 million from Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and Norwest Venture Partners.

SkySat-2, an identical version of SkySat-1, is scheduled to launch in early 2014. More unique capabilities based on Skybox’s proprietary technologies will be announced in the near future.

Source
For the latest news, please visit Skybox’s blog
For a gallery of images and video taken from SkySat-1, please go here
SkyNode
Imagery & Video

VANCOUVER, December 30, 2013 | UrtheCast Corp. (TSX:UR) (‘UrtheCast or ‘the Company’) announces that on Dec. 27, 2013, its two Earth observation cameras were installed as planned on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS).

However, Mission Controllers were unable to confirm that the cameras were receiving power from the ISS. As a safety precaution, the cameras were removed and re-stowed inside the ISS pending resolution of the problem. UrtheCast expects to provide further information and the date of the rescheduled space walk by mid-January or sooner as information becomes available. At this time, the Company expects that there will be little or no material impact on its business plan for 2014.

The installation of the cameras proceeded according to plan and without incident. During a spacewalk, Russian cosmonauts were able to transport the cameras to their mounting position and install them quickly and efficiently. However, soon after installation, the Mission Control Centre (MCC) outside of Moscow was unable to receive any data from either camera (contrary to what was reported during the live transmission of the spacewalk). Without this data, engineers in the MCC were not able to confirm that the cameras were receiving the power necessary to allow them to survive the temperature fluctuations of the space environment. As a consequence, senior technical personnel from UrtheCast and RSC Energia (UrtheCast’s Russian partner) jointly decided that the safest and most prudent course of action was to uninstall the cameras and bring them back inside the ISS to be reinstalled at a later date, once the data transmission problem has been solved.

UrtheCast’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr. George Tyc, was present at the MCC throughout the operation, along with the Company’s Chief Engineer for Space Systems, Mr. Greg Giffin. Said Dr. Tyc, “The fact the neither camera could communicate with the MCC strongly suggests that the problem lies inside the ISS and it is not a problem with the cameras or external cables. This kind of issue has been encountered before on the ISS and can be fixed in the near-term. Bringing the cameras back inside to be installed another day was simply the right engineering decision.”

RSC Energia has formed a Commission to quickly analyze and fix the problem and it has already held its first meeting. This is standard procedure at RSC Energia, which has a long and very successful history with manned space systems — it has established a rigorous process to deal quickly and efficiently with anomalies of this type when they occur. The Commission will work in close cooperation with UrtheCast’s engineering team. Once the Commission completes its assessment and has determined the timeline for the fixes required, a second spacewalk will be scheduled to reinstall the cameras.

“Delays like this happen in space. That’s the nature of the business,” explained Scott Larson, UrtheCast’s Chief Executive Officer. “The critical thing is to proceed carefully and deliberately, without taking undue risk. Fortunately, our project is on a manned platform, which gives us the ability to respond to incidents of this kind as they arise. The right decision was made to ensure the long-term success of this joint project. We are grateful for the extraordinary professionalism and dedication of UrtheCast’s and RSC Energia’s technical personnel.”

UrtheCast will provide an update with further progress regarding the cameras’ rescheduled installation as information becomes available, which will be confirmed by the results of the Commission. In the meantime, UrtheCast is focusing its efforts on the commissioning and testing of the other parts of the system and will continue its business development efforts.

About UrtheCast Corp.

UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company that is developing the world’s first near-live high-definition video feed of Earth, from space. Working with renowned aerospace partners from across the globe, UrtheCast has built, launched, and expects to install and operate, two cameras on the Russian segment of the ISS. Video and still image data captured by the cameras will be downlinked to ground stations across the planet and displayed on the UrtheCast web platform, or distributed directly to exclusive partners and customers. UrtheCast’s cameras will provide high-resolution video and imagery of Earth that will allow for monitoring of the environment, humanitarian relief, social events, agricultural land, etc. Common shares of UrtheCast trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ticker ‘UR’.

Source UrtheCast