UrtheCast receives $2 million grant from Canadian Space Agency to develop new satellite technologies

UrtheCast, a Vancouver-based Canadian earth observation company, today announced that it has been selected to receive $2.0 million funding from the Canadian Space Agency’s (“CSA”) Space Technology Development Program (“STDP”). The funding, which will be used for the development of new satellite technologies, comes in two separate agreements of $1.0 million each, for the development of new satellite technologies. The work is expected to start immediately and will be carried out over the next three years.

Founded in 2004 by Scott Larson, UrtheCast (pronounced “EarthCast”) serves the rapidly growing and evolving geospatial and geo-analytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services. Its mission is to provide the world’s first near-live HD video feed of Earth from space. Working with renowned aerospace partners from across the globe, UrtheCast is building, launching, installing, and operating two cameras on the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Earth video data collected by the cameras are downlinked to ground stations around the planet and then displayed in near-realtime on the UrtheCast web platform, or distributed directly to exclusive partners and customers.

UrtheCast provides interactive platform and HD Earth video data for internet users, app developers, educators, media outlets, government bodies, humanitarian relief organizations, and environmental monitoring services.

The first CSA STDP contribution agreement, “Automated Calibration and Validation of Optical Satellite Constellations,” will aid UrtheCast in the development of ground-breaking technologies for its planned UrtheDaily™ Constellation, currently slated for deployment in 2021. The second CSA STDP contribution agreement, “A Novel Self-Cueing TCPED Cycle for High Resolution Wide Swath SAR Imaging,” will support continued development of the next generation UrtheCast SAR-XL Synthetic Aperture Radar.

“We are extremely proud that the CSA has selected our innovative technology proposals through the highly competitive STDP program. This validation of our technology speaks to the Government of Canada’s continued, active interest in our technologies and programs,” explained UrtheCast’s CEO Don Osborne.