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Three Canadian firms get $2.4M to build RADARSAT+ ground systems
Contracts worth $2.4M go to MDA Space, Calian, and Kepler for ground-segment concepts. The RADARSAT+ system is central to Canada's $1B earth observation push.
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The Canadian Space Agency has handed out $2.4 million in contracts to three domestic companies to design the ground systems that will control the country's next generation of Earth-observation satellites. MDA Space in Brampton and Calian in Ottawa each won $804,000 contracts, as did Kepler in Toronto. Their task: deliver concept studies for the ground segment of RADARSAT+, the planned successor to Canada's satellite fleet.
Ground segments are the earth-based infrastructure that manages satellite communications, data reception, and command. The companies must produce a design for a flexible, modern ground system along with a development and implementation plan and an overview of the key technologies involved.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly framed the investment as a sovereignty play. “These investments support a next-generation satellite system that reinforces Canada’s space sector as a sovereign capability and reflects our broader efforts to strengthen Canada’s defence industrial capacity, while driving innovation across our space sector,” she said in a statement.
The federal government committed just over $1 billion in 2023 to sustain Canada's Earth-observation needs. The data is used for tasks ranging from tracking illegal fishing to coordinating disaster relief. MDA Space and Kepler are already working on the orbiting half of the project. In December, they and C-CORE each won $747,000 contracts to design the satellite itself. MDA also received nearly $45 million to purchase specialised components.
Canadian aerospace firms have gained from a recent push to boost domestic space capability. That push followed the launch of the Defence Industrial Strategy, which listed space as a “sovereign capability.” Under that strategy, Ottawa pledged $225 million to develop sovereign rocket-launch capacity. Kepler CEO Mina Mitry told BetaKit in April that Canada's vast land mass means satellites are the only practical way to monitor it all.