ESA and the European Commission have signed a €48 million grant that will allow the space agency to ensure the coordinated and timely supply of satellite-based Earth Observation data for the preoperational phase of GMES from 2008 to 2010. The signing of the grant marks the first real cooperation between the two in the GMES

(Washington, DC) Today U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO), Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, introduced a bipartisan House resolution to celebrate 35 years of space-based observations of the Earth by Landsat spacecraft – an accomplishment that has helped revolutionize our understanding of the Earth’s land surface as

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) announces a new category of membership, Aggregate Membership. It enables collaborating entities to bring their common issues and perspectives into the OGC process of developing interoperability standards. For example, state or provincial and local government agencies collaborate so that emergency response plans are fully coordinated. In this process, they identify

Canada’s Radarsat-2 Earth observation satellite, which has been almost a decade in design and construction, launched successfully Friday aboard a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to launch-services provider Starsem S.A. of France. The 4,850-pound (2,200-kilogram) Radarsat-2 is expected to operate for seven years in a 495-mile (798-kilometer), sun-synchronous low Earth

Acquisition of Multimap will help Microsoft deliver new, expanded services on the Web.

Part One: The Commission’s December 2007 Strategic Report What are the main conclusions of the Commission’s report? First, European and national level reforms are delivering results and contributing to growth and jobs at present and for the future. The national Implementation Reports demonstrate that Member States have taken many of the necessary steps to implement

New ability to ensure power supplies unaffected by vegetation

The ‘Lisbon Declaration on GMES and Africa’ has been adopted at a meeting of organisations and governmental European and African bodies and entities under the aegis of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union in Lisbon, Portugal. The Lisbon Declaration falls under the wider framework of the Africa-European Union (EU) Partnership on

The report summarising the main outcomes from the 4th October “Briefing to European EO Service Industry on the planning of future ESA EO exploitation activities (2008 – 2012)” is available here for download. Briefing Summary Report Further comments/feedback on the future EO exploitation activities (EOEP-3) presented are welcome. Please send them by e-mail to eomd_at_esa.int

Scheduled to be launched in the first three months of 2008, the COSMO-SkyMed 2 satellite has been finally put in orbit on 9th December 2007 from the American Air Force Base of Vandenberg on the coast of California. The COSMO-Skymed system, funded by the Italian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Research, while the

ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Dr Volker Liebig, and Eumetsat Director General, Dr Lars Prahm, have exchanged letters to document the understanding achieved between the two organisations on co-operation and co-ordination regarding the approval process of the respective Meteosat Third Generation programmes.

South Africa’s earth observation capabilities have been given a boost with the establishment of the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), which will gather various data to ensure better management of existing resources and promote sustainable development.

The aim of THE INTEGRATED APPLICATIONS PROMOTION (IAP) INITIATIVE is to promote the development of Integrated Applications using a combination of space capabilities and delivering new services to citizens. The objective of the Information Day is twofold: – to inform industry (space and non-space) on the Integrated Application Promotion (IAP) initiative – to open a

The public procurement market in the EU – covering all levels of government and public agencies – is estimated to be worth around one-sixth of total GDP in the EU. This represents a huge market, and one from which Europe’s SMEs ought to be deriving a significant share. Yet although SMEs are not specifically excluded, the procedures and practices used in many tenders have the effect of disadvantaging SMEs over larger competitors. This situation is expected to improve with the ongoing implementation by Member States of the 2004 Directives reforming public procurement rules. The European Commission is further contributing to the process by pooling Member States and stimulating the exchange and dissemination of SME friendly practices.

Now the partners of the European PREVIEW and RISK-EOS projects have analysed the devastating events of the summer. The report looks at the tools and services developed by the projects, some of which were trialled in Greece during the fires

A new global Earth observation system, that could save lives in disasters such as the recent cyclone in southern Bangladash, is being reviewed at a ministerial-level summit in Cape Town this week. VOA’s Delia Robertson in Johannesburg has this report.