Ministers of the European Space Agency’s member nations are meeting this week to grapple with a number of issues associated with the agency, including funding levels and plans for future programs. An ESA press release last week outlines those issues, ranging from Earth observation programs to proposals to develop a new upper stage for the

The NASA’s Earth Observer-1 (EO-1) has reached its eighth anniversary on orbit. The EO-1 satellite, launched on November 21, 2000 had an initial design and mission life of one year, but has continued successful operations for more than 7 years past the initial mission. ATK served as the Prime Contractor, Mission Integrator and Bus Developer

The European Global Earth Observation and Monitoring project aims to construct an integrated, pan-European atmospheric monitoring program from existing systems to study air quality and climate change. Global climate and air-pollution monitoring requires continuous observations from space. However, calibration of remote-sensing measurements from space instruments is difficult for many reasons, including failures during launch or

Europe’s excellence in space, its increased recognition worldwide and the recent successes are all the result of decisions and investments made by European Ministers years and even decades ago. To better understand the importance of the decisions which are on the agenda of the upcoming Ministerial Council Meeting which will take place in The Hague

MEPs adopted (443 in favour 65 against and 16 abstentions) a resolution on European space policy: how to bring space down to earth, which stresses the importance of developing a space-related industrial policy as a means of ensuring Europe’s political, technological and operational autonomy. MEPs welcome the Council commitment to the development of a European

ESA has launched a new initiative – the Changing Earth Science Network – to support young scientists undertaking leading-edge research activities aimed at advancing our understanding of the Earth System. Although the Earth has undergone significant changes in the past, there is mounting evidence that the changes imposed, mostly by human activity, during the last

Romania will play host, November 19-20, to the 5th annual plenary session of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO), to be organised by the Romanian Space Agency and the National Authority for Scientific Research. Nearly 300 officials from the Group on Earth Observations’ member governments and organisations will meet here to plan the next three-year

Thales Alenia Space’ Spanish subsidiary, Thales Alenia Space Espana, has been awarded a 17 million euro contract by Sener, the payload prime contractor, to supply the electronics for the optical observation Instrument on the Ingenio satellite. Ingenio’s primary mission is to ensure regular coverage of emerged areas to deliver high-resolution images to a wide array

20th November 2008 – Infoterra, a leader in the provision of geospatial products and services, has partnered with Stanfords Business Mapping, a leading retail supplier of paper mapping and map data for businesses, to develop a cost-effective new geographical asset management system – Stanfords GIS – for organisations managing property portfolios. This new system incorporates

BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) — China’s new polar orbiting meteorological satellite, Feng Yun-3 A and its ground application system, started business runs on Tuesday, said China Meteorological Administration (CMA). The CMA said it would actively sell data and services provided by the satellite to domestic and overseas users. It supplies a wide range of information

Ministers in charge of space activities within the now 18 ESA Member States and Canada will meet in The Hague (the Netherlands) on 25 and 26 November to implement the European Space Policy, setting out the start of future programmes and taking decisions on the next phases of on-going programmes. This Council meeting at ministerial

Canada’s space agency awarded a $40-million contract last Friday to the company that operates Radarsat-2, Canada’s earth observation satellite, to design the satellite’s successors. MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), based in Richmond, B.C., received the 16-month contract to complete the preliminary design of the Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM), a fleet of three satellites that

The Naval Research Laboratory’s Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER) has successfully observed a second northern season of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs), which are the Earth’s highest clouds. This successful observation fulfills the primary goal of the Space Test Programme Satellite-1 (STPSat-1) Extended Mission. SHIMMER was originally launched as the primary payload of STPSat-1

Start Date End Date Event Web Venue 19-nov-08 20-nov-08 GeoMatics Atlantic 2008 – Discovering the Way to a Sustainable Future web New Brunswick,Canada 25-nov-08 26-nov-08 ESA Council meeting at ministerial level web The Hague, Netherlands 26-nov-08 28-nov-08 5th International Symposium on LBS & TeleCartography web Salzburg, Austria 26-nov-08 29-nov-08 Eurocities 2008 web The Hague, Netherlands

Richmond Hill, Ontario – PCI Geomatics, a world-leading developer of software and solutions for geospatial imaging applications, is pleased to announce the completion of a contract with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to build an automated production system for the orthorectification, mosaicking and pansharpening of KOMPSAT-2 satellite imagery. This fully automated system is built

Wayland, Massachusetts – The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced the completion and availability of Version 2.0 of the OGC Reference Model (ORM) at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/orm. The ORM provides a framework for the ongoing work of the OGC and a guide for those who seek to implement interoperable solutions and applications for geospatial services and data. The