MDA RapidEye Supplier of Direct Downlink Solutions

08 April 2009, 11:37pm

Brandenburg / Havel, Germany, April 8, 2009 – RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate their own satellite constellation, has reached a new contractual agreement with MacDonald, Dettwiler
and Associates Ltd. (MDA). This partnership will allow MDA to be the sole supplier of direct downlink solutions for RapidEye's international ground station customers.

MDA, RapidEye's prime contractor, conducted the commissioning period on both the space and ground segment in which system performance and product quality have been thoroughly measured, analyzed and verified.

As part of the agreement with MDA, RapidEye's international ground station customers will be provided with ground systems capable of programming, receiving and processing imagery from RapidEye's constellation of five satellites.

Wolfgang Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye, commented, “The expansion of RapidEye's range of services to include direct data downlink services will complement our core products and services business and will allow us to serve even more customers with near real-time imaging requirements.”

David Hargreaves, one of MDA's Vice Presidents in the Information Systems group, said: “The strategic cooperation agreement established between MDA and RapidEye will enable our team to provide our operational defense and intelligence customers with secure, near real-time direct access to the broad area surveillance capabilities of the RapidEye constellation.”

Geo: International