Welcome to Biz Briefs! In this edition, Open Cosmos and GHGSat completed big raises, SpaceX and Rocket Lab signed launch contracts, Northrop Grumman and Space Forge announced a strategic partnership on space manufacturing, SES partnered to bring communications to cruise ships and rural Alaska, Nova Scotia invested in Maritime Launch Services, and much more as the World Satellite Business Week conference generated a late summer blizzard of space news.

BONN, Germany (ESA PR) — GHGSat, a leader in high-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, has officially joined ESA’s prestigious Third Party Mission Programme. Announced today at the Living Planet Symposium currently taking place in Bonn, data from the company’s fleet of commercial satellites will be provided, free of charge, to researchers working in the fields of Earth science and climate change. Users will be able to access greenhouse gas measurements from sites all around the world.

Through ESA’s Third Party Missions Programme, ESA allows high quality data from a wide range of Earth observation satellite missions developed and operated by other agencies to be accessed to the wider scientific community. The programme, which has been operating for over 45 years, includes over 60 instruments on more than 50 space missions.

DAEGU (SI Imaging Services PR) — SI Imaging Services (SIIS), a firm providing high-resolution satellite imagery, will operate a joint booth with GHGSat, a methane tracking satellite firm in Canada, at the World Gas Congress 2022 (WGC) held at EXCO in Daegu, South Korea, from the 23rd May for five days.

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, 5 May 2022 (SFL PR) – Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) and GHGSat Inc. today announced the successful completion of laboratory testing on the GHGSat-C3, C4, and C5 microsatellites at SFL’s facility in Toronto. Canadian based company GHGSat is expanding its constellation of methane monitoring satellites, expected to launch in spring/summer 2022.

TORONTO, Ont., 21 March 2022 (SFL PR) – Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) has been awarded a contract by GHGSat, world leader in high-resolution remote sensing of greenhouse gas emissions to build another three microsatellites – GHGSat-C6, C7, and C8 – for the company’s commercial greenhouse gas monitoring constellation. A key factor in the selection was the high-performance attitude control system developed by SFL to enable precise pointing of the onboard methane-detecting sensors.

GHGSat has achieved unrivaled success in detecting and measuring point sources of greenhouse gas emissions on the Earth’s surface from space. Thanks to its technology, GHGSat is the only organization in the world capable of detecting methane emissions from sources 100 times smaller than those detected by other satellites by using a resolution 100 times greater than other systems. GHGSat-C6, C7, and C8 are needed to meet the growing commercial demand for GHGSat services and information products.

MONTREAL, December 8, 2021 (GHGSat PR) — GHGSat, the world leader in high-resolution remote sensing of greenhouse gas emissions, is building on its momentum to deploy a constellation of satellites in collaboration with the global technology leader ABB. GHGSat’s next three satellites, GHGSat-C3, C4 and C5, will be launched into orbit in summer 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-5 mission. GHGSat also announced that it has exercised a contract option with ABB to provide six more payloads for monitoring methane emissions as well as a payload to detect CO₂ emissions.

“We were delighted to be an active participant at the recent COP26 conference. Not only did we announce $20 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), but we also announced that GHGSat would provide the first commercial high-resolution satellite emissions data to the International Methane Emission Observatory (IMEO) to support environmental policy actions. Satellite data is critical for stakeholders globally to take immediate action for a sustainable future. GHGSat is serving this need with our growing constellation,” explained Stephane Germain, GHGSat CEO.

GLASGOW, Scotland (ESA PR) — In the first 20 years of reaching the atmosphere, methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. Reducing emissions of this extremely potent gas is, therefore, one of the fastest ways of slowing the rate of global warming, at least in the short term – and at COP26, more than 100 countries have just signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to limit emissions by 30% compared with 2020 levels.

• Series B funding closed at US$45M with the support of the Government of Québec through Investissement Québec, OGCI Climate Investments and Space Capital
• The investment will enable the company to triple the number of sensors deployed by 2023 as well as to expand its international commercial presence, particularly in Europe and the US

MONTREAL (GHGSat PR) – GHGSat, the global leader in high resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, has completed the second tranche of a funding round initiated in 2020, thereby closing its total Series B funding at US$45 million. The company has raised more than US$70 million since its inception in 2011.

• High-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring satellite pioneer GHGSat to map methane emissions at sea.
• Industrial participants include Chevron, Shell, and TotalEnergies.
• 18 offshore sites in locations such as the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico to be observed over 12 months.

MONTREAL, July 7, 2021 (GHGSat PR) – GHGSat today announced a new research project to assess the feasibility of its unique high-resolution, space-based methane monitoring technology to measure emissions from offshore oil and gas platforms. Chevron, Shell, and TotalEnergies are supporting the 12-month research project, which is expected to achieve a world-first in demonstrating high-resolution satellite-based monitoring of anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions at sea.

• GHGSat-C2 (“Hugo”) successfully separated from SpaceX rocket
• Follows launch of GHGSat’s second satellite, “Iris” on September 2nd, 2020
• Hugo is the result of GHGSat’s first collaboration with international leader in technology, ABB Measurement & Analytics Canada

MONTREAL, January 24, 2021 (GHGSat PR) – GHGSat, the global leader in high-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, has successfully completed the launch of its third satellite, GHGSat-C2 (“Hugo”), which launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:00 ET / 15:00 UTC on January 24^th, 2021.