MDA Space will use the spacecraft design it developed for MDA Chorus for the Radarsat Constellation Mission replenishment satellite. Credit: MDA Space
WASHINGTON — MDA Space will build a radar imaging satellite for the Canadian Space Agency as the government studies options for a next-generation satellite system.
MDA Space announced June 24 it received a contract from the Canadian Space Agency worth 688 million Canadian dollars ($483.3 million) to build a replenishment spacecraft for the Radarsat Constellation Mission, or RCM. The company received an initial award of 44.7 million Canadian dollars last December to procure long-lead items for the spacecraft.
RCM is a set of three synthetic-aperture radar, or SAR, imaging satellites built by MDA for the Canadian government and launched in 2019. Neither MDA nor the Canadian Space Agency announced a planned launch date for the replenishment satellite.
The new satellite is based on the design the company developed for MDA Chorus, a commercial SAR system. MDA is building one satellite for Chorus equipped with a C-band radar, while Iceye is supplying a separate satellite with an X-band radar. The satellites are expected to launch late this year on a Falcon 9.
