Urthecast

UrtheCast is a Vancouver-based Canadian earth observation company. It produced two cameras on the International Space Station. One of these is a medium resolution camera. The other is the first ultra-high-definition (UHD) video camera in space. The company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in June 2013[2] but was delisted in October 2020 after filing for creditor protection.[3]

UrtheCast Corp.
TypePublic
TSX: UR
IndustryInternet
Founded10 December 2010 
HeadquartersVancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Don Osborne (CEO)
(Chair of the Board)
Dr. George Tyc (CTO)
Sai Chu (CFO)
Wade Larson and Scott Larson (Co-Founders)
ProductsRemote sensing
Geospatial information
Revenue$15.6 million (2018) [1]
WebsiteUrtheCast.com

On June 22, 2015, UrtheCast announced plans to place a 16 satellite constellation in orbit called "OptiSar" to image the earth with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical cameras in order to provide earth observation day or night, rain or shine.

On June 23, 2015, UrtheCast announced it had reached an agreement to buy a Spanish based earth observation company Deimos Imaging and its two satellites. On March 31, 2016, Urthecast announced plans to place an additional eight satellite constellations in orbit called "UrtheDaily" to monitor the entire earth every day.

Urthecast has asked the UK manufacturer SSTL to make the satellites and the Spanish organization Elecnor Deimos to design the ground control functions. The goal is to produce large amounts of earth observation imagery from multiple sensors and upload the data to a user-friendly, cloud-based platform. Images and data will be made available for further proccessing. "OptiSar" is still pending financing and its launch date is still TBD. "UrtheDaily" is in the final funding stages and is scheduled to launch in 2020.

Other constellation announcements are Airbus (which owns SSTL) plans to build a 900 spacecraft for OneWeb aiming to cover the earth with broadband connectivity.[4]

UrtheCast announced[5] that the Industrial Technologies Office of "Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada" is going to grant approximately CA$17.6 million ($13.08 million) in funding. This grant is part of its Strategic Aerospace & Defense Initiative (SADI) program and will provide financial support for the ongoing development of UrtheCast’s planned "OptiSAR" constellation.

In 2018, UrtheCast acquired Geosys from Land O'Lakes, Inc.[6]

UrtheCast could not meet payments in 2019 and eventually went insolvent in 2021. A new start-up "Earth Day Analytics" has been spun out of this insolvency. [7]

Missions

UrtheDaily is a planned global coverage constellation by UrtheCast aiming to acquire high-quality, multispectral imagery, at 5 m GSD, taken silmutaneously, from the same altitude every day.[8]

SAR-XL is a technology for UrtheCast's OptiSAR™ Constellation that comprises eight tandem pairs of SAR and Optical Satellites in two orbit planes. UrtheCast is currently developing this technology.[9]

References
  1. "UrtheCast Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2018 Financial Results".
  2. UrtheCast Announces the Completion of Reverse Takeover Transaction and Private Placement, Newswire Canada, 24 June 2013.
  3. "Vancouver satellite-imaging company UrtheCast becomes latest tech firm to seek creditor protection during pandemic". The Kingston Whig-Standard. October 8, 2020.
  4. "Urthecast video cameras to circle globe - BBC News". BBC News. 22 June 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-22.
  5. "UrtheCast raises CA$17.6 million to support OptiSAR constellation - Geospatial World". Geospatial World. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  6. "Land O'Lakes to Sell Geosys for $20 Million". Successful Farming. 2018-08-23. Retrieved 2019-04-08..
  7. "Optical imagery-focused EarthDaily Analytics emerges from UrtheCast". SpaceNews. 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  8. "UrtheDaily 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 – Gunter's Space Page". Gunter's Space Page. 2021-08-31. Retrieved 2022-03-26..
  9. "The UrtheCast SAR-XL multi-band, multi-aperture spaceborne SAR system". IEEE Xplore. 2017-06-08. Retrieved 2022-03-26..


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