[Satellite Today – 6-23-08] Com Dev International Ltd. will design, build and launch a micro-satellite for the government of Canada, the company announced June 23.
Under the contract, valued at 8.6 million Canadian dollars ($8.5 million), Com Dev will develop the Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Micro-satellite (M3MSat), a technology demonstration mission jointly funded and managed by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The spacecraft is expected to demonstrate the full capability of advanced spaced-based automatic identification system technology developed by Com Dev as well as carry a secondary communications payload to demonstrate a range of low-data-rate applications.
    M3MSat, expected to be launched in 2010, will make use of the multi-mission micro-satellite bus concept defined by the CSA. Com Dev also unveiled June 17 a 7 million Canadian dollar ($6.9 million) program to develop a class of micro-satellites capable of meeting the CSA’s objective of launching a range of missions using a common platform.
    "We believe micro-satellites will prove to be a very useful platform for meeting some of the fundamental national priorities of a country like Canada, where geography dictates that many applications are more effectively undertaken from space than they can be from the ground," John Keating, CEO of Com Dev, said in a statement. "We are very excited to be involved at the beginning stages of the CSA’s micro-satellite initiative as well as DRDC’s space systems [research and development] effort, and we view our selection for this mission as an important endorsement of our [automatic identification system] technology."