TAMPA, Fla. — GHGSat has ordered one other 4 16U cubesats from Spire Global for a launch no sooner than 2024 to expand its greenhouse gas-monitoring constellation, the Canadian satellite operator announced Aug. 8.
The satellites, each the dimensions of 16 cubesats, are similar to the three GHGSat ordered from Spire last 12 months for a launch in late 2023.
GHGSat currently has nine satellites in low Earth orbit, built by the University of Toronto’s Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) and are in regards to the same size.
The seven additional satellites from Spire will increase the frequency of the constellation’s observations and coverage as a part of plans to watch emissions every day from every industrial source, GHGSat said without elaborating.
Spire and GHGSat declined to reveal the worth of their expanded contract.
The constellation uses gas-detection payloads from Switzerland-based ABB to trace methane emissions from carbon-intensive industries resembling oil and gas, coal mining, waste management, and agriculture.
In accordance with GHGSat, its services can assist organizations detect methane leaks, quantify their emissions for regulators, and support strategies for reducing environmental harm.
Vienna, Virginia-headquartered Spire is constructing satellites for GHGSat at manufacturing facilities in Scotland, United Kingdom.
GHGSat said the contract demonstrates its growing commitment to the UK, where it announced a contract in June to share emissions data with the UK Space Agency for research and development purposes.
Spire unveiled its 16U platform last 12 months and it’s currently the most important satellite offered by the corporate.
Virgin Orbit was because of launch Spire’s first 16U cubesat — for Canadian space situational awareness enterprise NorthStar Earth and Space — in mid-2023 before collapsing out of business.
Rocket Lab is now slated to launch NorthStar’s first 4 16U satellites from Spire this fall on an Electron rocket.
Spire operates satellites on behalf of its customers under its space-as-a-service business model to save lots of them costs and other burdens, although the spacecraft for GHGSat would still be purpose-built for the Canadian firm’s payloads.
In contrast, GHGSat fully owns the nine satellites it ordered from SFL.
SFL director Robert Zee said Aug. 8 that GHGSat’s latest three satellites are performing well after launching in April on SpaceX’s Transporter-7 Falcon 9 rideshare mission.
Other ventures plotting similar methane-monitoring satellite businesses include France-based Absolut Group and Satlantis of Spain.
In December, Absolut Group ordered a 16U demo satellite from Lithuanian manufacturer NanoAvionics for a launch in early 2024 called Gen1, which might use sensors at very low temperatures to detect greenhouse gas leaks.