October 21, 2008

RapidEye releases first images

   
Images courtesy of RapidEye AG

Richmond, B.C. - MDA's Information Systems group is pleased to announce the first public release of an image generated by the RapidEye satellite constellation mission developed by MDA for RapidEye-AG. Steve Oldham, vice president for satellite missions at MDA, said, 'We are pleased to provide this first image demonstrating that the RapidEye system is progressing well towards handover to our customer RapidEye-AG.'

The image is published both on the MDA (http://sm.mdacorporation.com/news/pr21102008_en.html) and RapidEye AG (www.rapideye.de) websites. The image shows the area of El Bolsón in Argentina, near the Argentinian-Chilean border.

RapidEye AG is an ISO-certified geospatial information provider focused on integrating customized and industry specific solutions into the workflow of global customers in agriculture, forestry, energy, infrastructure, government, security and emergency. The RapidEye mission includes a constellation of five Earth Observation satellites and the related ground infrastructure. RapidEye AG is planning to operate the mission to deliver agricultural land information products and services such as crop monitoring and mapping, yield prediction, and natural disaster assessment.

Insurance and food companies, farmers, government and other agencies and institutions throughout the world will regularly receive up-to-date products and services of the highest quality. In addition RapidEye will offer unique and highly competitive products to cartography customers.

The RapidEye Satellite Constellation consists of five identical satellites. Each satellite weighs about 150 kg and is approximately 1 cubic meter in size. The satellites carry optical pushbroom type imagers that collect imagery of the Earth with a Ground Sampling Distance of 6.5 meters. The imagers operate in five different colours (Blue, Green, Red, Red Edge and Near Infrared). RapidEye has the capacity of imaging over 4 million km2 per day and is capable of imaging any point on the Earth on any day.

MDA is the prime contractor of the RapidEye mission. As part of its overall responsibility of delivering the RapidEye system turnkey and in-orbit to our customer RapidEye-AG., MDA had a direct responsibility for the mission design, the spacecraft design and the ground image planning and processing system.

As a subcontractor to MDA, SSTL in Guildford, UK designed and built the spacecraft bus, the Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) and performed the spacecraft Assembly Integration and Test. MDA's other subcontractor is Jena Optronik GmbH, in Jena, Germany. Jena Optronik designed and built the imaging payloads. The launch by a Dnepr Launch Vehicle was provided by ISC Kosmotras.

The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), a Government of Canada Crown corporation, acts as the contracting agency between MDA and RapidEye-AG.

MDA provides advanced information solutions that capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential information, and improve the decision making and operational performance of business and government organizations worldwide.

Focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, MDA delivers a broad spectrum of earth and space based information solutions, ranging from complex operational systems, to tailored information services, to electronic information products.

MDA employs more than 3,300 people in locations across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The Company's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol. TSX:MDA.

Related Websites:
www.mdacorporation.com
www.rapideye.de