A new satellite built by Richmond company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. for the Canadian military was launched from India yesterday.
The Sapphire satellite was built for the Department of National Defence for $65 million and will be used to track other satellites and manmade objects in orbit at altitudes of 6,000 to 40,000 kilometres.
Data from the Sapphire satellite will be used by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network to help monitor space traffic and avoid collision between other satellites and space debris. The satellite was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.
“This is MDA’s first solution for the growing space surveillance market,” said MDA CEO Daniel Friedmann.
“Studies have shown that with increases in space debris, and the threat to the systems and services growing, space-based space surveillance will become more and more crucial to provide collision avoidance capabilities and prevent system and service loss.”
MDA will operate and maintain the new satellite system for five years under a contract worth $11.7 million.
