Antoine De Chassy, Spire’s new senior business development executive. Photo: Spire

[Via Satellite 05-27-2015] Spire has appointed Antoine de Chassy, the former president and CEO of Astrium Geo-Information North America (since renamed Airbus Defence and Space) as its senior business development executive. De Chassy has more than 20 years of experience with the space industry and the U.S. government, working with customers such as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the U.S. Air Force. He helped integrate data, services and ground processing systems as a supplemental government resource.

Spire has orbited four satellites and raised approximately $29 million from investors. The company plans to launch a constellation of more than 20 satellites for Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) measurements this year. To date, Spire has focused primarily on customers in maritime and weather, though the company has customers spread across several verticals.

“I’m looking forward to collaborating on projects and utilizing my background to forge stronger relationships between the private and public sectors,” said de Chassy.

Spire has already booked launch slots for its growing satellite constellation. According to the company, this satellite data system will deliver 20 times more global ship tracking data with a potential 30 percent improvement in accuracy and five times more GPS-RO readings than today’s publicly funded weather satellites.

“We’re happy to be able to meet government needs for signal intelligence with a flexible pricing model and a product that requires no government funding to get off the ground,” said Peter Platzer, CEO of Spire.