[10-05-07 – Satellite Today]  MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) has won a $65 million contract to provide the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) with a space-based data collection platform called Sapphire, the company announced Oct. 4.

Sapphire is the first dedicated space mission for DND, and will provide continuous surveillance of manmade and natural objects in medium to high Earth orbit. The data collected will be used to update the U.S. Satellite Catalogue, used by both NORAD and Canada to provide space situational awareness.

MDA will lead a team comprised of Comdev, of Cambridge, Ontario, and SSTL, out of Surrey, England.