Artist rendition of the NorthStar system. Photo: NorthStar

NorthStar Earth and Space (NorthStar E&S) received $39.3 million (CA$52 million) in additional financing from strategic partners for the development of NorthStar, a global environment information platform aiming to help society’s ability to manage our impact on Earth and its natural resources.

The governments of Canada and Quebec are each contributing $9.8 million (CA$13 million). Private partners include Telesystem Space of Montreal, the majority shareholder, and the Space Alliance of Europe. Formed by Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, the Space Alliance is a strategic partnership between Leonardo and Thales, major industrial groups in the aerospace industry of Italy and France. This$39.3 million (CA$52 million) sum adds to the $23.5 million (CA$31 million) already contributed by NorthStar E&S’s Canadian and U.S. founding partners.

The NorthStar platform is based on a 40-satellite constellation with sensors and information delivery capability. NorthStar aims to enable new advances in continuous environmental management including pollution detection, charting the health of the world’s oceans and rivers, enhancing the productivity of agriculture, wildfire alerts, and pipeline oil and gas monitoring to prevent spills and contamination. Around and above the planet, NorthStar’s sensors aim to track orbital debris to reduce the probability of collisions and protect high-value assets in space.