Russian Soyuz Launches with COM DEV exactView-1 Satellite

A Russian Soyuz-FG vehicle launched early Sunday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with five satellites onboard including COM DEV’s ExactView-1 as a secondary payload. Other satellites included the primary payloads of the Russian satellite KANOPUS-V1 (Canopus-B) and Belarusian BKA satellite and other secondary payloads MKA-PN1 from Russia and German TET-1.

The launch marks the fifth satellite deployed in COM DEV’s subsidiary exactEarth’s constellation of Automatic Identification System (AIS) satellites for advanced information on global maritime traffic.

While considered a small satellite weighing 100 kg, the exactView-1 satellite is expected to provide the highest detection performance from a commercial provider in monitoring in near real-time AIS data on the locations, speeds and routes of vessels throughout the world’s oceans.

The satellite was designed and assembled by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) in Guildford, UK. The spacecraft is based on the SSTL-100 platform and has been adapted for the exactEarth mission with an additional deployable solar panel providing extra power for the COM DEV AIS receiver payload.

COM DEV’s exactEarth subsidiary has proven to be a great investment to date and has helped the companies stock climb 41% year to date.

About Marc Boucher

Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor & publisher. He is the founder of SpaceQ Media Inc. and CEO and co-founder of SpaceRef Interactive LLC. Boucher has 20+ years working in various roles in the space industry and a total of 30 years as a technology entrepreneur including creating Maple Square, Canada's first internet directory and search engine.

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