COM DEV Sings “Oh, Canada”

COM DEV International Ltd. [TSX: CDV], a manufacturer of space hardware subsystems, has been awarded an $8.6 million contract to design, build and launch a micro-satellite for the Government of Canada. The Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Micro-satellite (M3MSat) is a technology demonstration mission that is jointly funded and managed by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The spacecraft is designed to ‘support Canadian sovereignty, security, safety and communications needs within the territorial and maritime regions of Canada and beyond’.

M3MSat will incorporate the multi-mission, micro-satellite bus concept recently defined by the CSA. COM DEV has announced the launch of an internally funded program to develop a class of micro-satellites that comply with the CSA’s objective of launching a range of missions using a common platform. M3MSat is expected to demonstrate the full capability of advanced spaced-based AIS (Automatic Identification System) technology developed by COM DEV. AIS signals are broadcast from the world’s major marine vessels for navigation and identification purposes, but currently they are only collected by other ships and land-based receivers within a 50 nautical mile range. Collection of the signals from space using COM DEV’s AIS technology, would enable a new global view of the world’s shipping traffic. Additionally, a secondary communications payload will be operated on M3MSat to demonstrate a range of low data rate applications that can support Canadian civil needs as well as commercial requirements. The micro-satellite is expected to be launched in 2010—Cambridge, Ontario, Canada