Through its investment, as part of an overall CAD$52 million first round of public and private financing, the Space Alliance is proving that it plays a leading role in the New Space sector, providing solutions to NorthStar for the design, development and realization of a unique 40 satellite constellation based on double equipped satellites to provide Space Situational Awareness and Geo Information services.
Space Situational Awareness refers to the ability to view, understand and map the physical location of natural and man-made objects in orbit around the Earth (currently there are more than 600 thousand objects in low Earth orbit with hundreds of billions of dollars of space assets at risk from collisions).
Today the Earth Observation technology of most satellite players is mainly based on optical and radar solutions. Through hyperspectral sensors, which deduce the chemical and mineral composition of matter on Earth, Northstar will provide value added information products with regard to agriculture, forestry, fishery, urban planning, oil & gas markets – other than to Defense and other institutional customers.
“Northstar, with the technological, industrial and commercial support of the Space Alliance, will be able to offer both Space Situational Awareness and Earth Observation services by embarking on its satellite constellation Hyperspectral and Infrared Sensors observing Earth, and Optical sensors directed to near space”, jointly declared Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Telespazio, and Jean Loïc Galle, CEO of Thales Alenia Space. They added, “This investment in Northstar is strategically in line with Space Alliance's global offer and we are convinced this solution will bring benefit to our customers and their priority needs”.
“We are pleased to announce this important partnership with the Space Alliance," said NorthStar CEO Stewart Bain. "The NorthStar platform of information services demands an international collaboration. The Space Alliance brings invaluable business and technical expertise to our team.”
Telespazio will mainly act in the business development activities in Europe for both the SSA and the EO segments, being responsible for the design and development of service infrastructure for institutional and commercial customers. Thales Alenia Space will principally work for the design and development of the Space Segment System and Architecture, including satellite bus and relevant payloads. Together, Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space will support NorthStar in the design, development, realization and operations of the Ground Segment systems and subsystems.