UrtheCast Corp, the Canadian firm currently offering moving pictures of Earth locations taken from the International Space Station, has purchased the imaging division of Deimos Space (Part of Elecnor) for €74.2 million (US$84.5 million) – figures from Space News. The deal includes two spacecraft, the medium-resolution Deimos-1 and the high-resolution Deimos-2 spacecraft. The latter has a ground resolution of 0.75m.
The news came after an announcement that the firm has teamed up with the small satellite subsidiary of Airbus, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), to build a small constellation of eight radar and eight imaging satellites.
UrtheCast’s planned “Generation 3″ constellation will use high-resolution optical cameras and dual band SAR-synthetic aperture radars with both types using a common spacecraft platform/bus co-designed by the two firms. SSTL was previously involved in the provision of a camera for taking moving high-resolution images from the ISS. While its tracking platform had issues that resulted in a claim for insurance loss, the firm successfully demonstrated the concept. Click here to see moving London buses from space.
