ESA PR 24-2008. The European Space Agency and Astrium today signed a €195 million contract to provide the first Sentinel-2 earth observation satellite, devoted to monitoring the land environment, as part of the European GMES programme. As prime contractor, Astrium is responsible for the design, development and integration of the satellite, which will perform a high-end multi-spectral optical imaging mission.

Eurostars is a EUR 400-million Europe-wide programme set up to fund SME-driven research and development (R&D) activities in 24 of the EU’s Member States, plus Iceland, Israel, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The programme is open to consortia of research-oriented enterprises from these 29 countries. Eurostars is open for continuous funding applications, with an average of two submission deadlines each year. The next deadline for submissions is 21 November 2008.

The amount of information being generated about our planet is increasing at an exponential rate but, say the European Space Agency, it must be easily accessible in order to apply it to the global needs relating to the state of the Earth.

Capital Investors

Thales Alenia Space announced that it has signed a 305 million Euro contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to supply the Sentinel-3 Earth observation satellite for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program.

The European Space Agency and Thales Alenia Space today signed a €305 million contract to provide the first Sentinel-3 earth observation satellite, devoted to oceanography and land-vegetation monitoring, as part of the European GMES programme.

ERDAS, Inc. announces the full support of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system in ERDAS IMAGINE 9.2. Microsoft Windows Vista is fully supported throughout the entire ERDAS IMAGINE suite of software products, including IMAGINE AutoSync, IMAGINE DeltaCue and IMAGINE InSAR.

(April 11) The GEOportal is one of the three candidates developed in response to a set of requirements from the GEO Secretariat aiming at the implementation of a GEO Web Portal serving the GEO User Community.

Integrated observation system consisting of both land and space technology can go a long way in establishing India’s credibility in the international space programme scenario, said K Kasturirangan, Rajyasabha member and former Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) here on Tuesday while addressing the concluding function of golden jubilee celebrations of the National Environmental Engineering

Blue Marble Geographics (www.bluemarblegeo.com) announces new support for the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) parameters, including the Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) Irish Grid polynomial datum transformation definition.

The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) announced the publication of the 2008 Geospatial Technology Report.

(April 8). EUMETSAT reached an important milestone on 2 April by integrating the first set of metadata describing SAF products into its Operational Archive, allowing Users to query and order SAF products via the EUMETSAT Archive Web services.

Com Dev International Ltd. will develop components for an Earth observation satellite being developed by an unnamed Asian customer, Com Dev announced April 4.

Taiwan’s FORMOSAT-2 satellite is playing an integral role in assisting the international scientific community monitor the breakup of an ice shelf in Antarctica by providing detailed real-time images of the phenomenon, which began Feb. 28.

A new ESA study aims to deduce better ways of characterising the devastation caused by fires. It will develop computer techniques to improve the already existing methods of interpreting satellite data that shows burnt areas on the surface of the Earth.

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging today announced that it has changed its name to ERDAS, Inc. Recently making several acquisitions, the combined company is reintroducing the ERDAS name and will do business under this name moving forward.