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ORBCOMM Partners with OHB and Its Affiliate LuxSpace to Build and Launch Two AIS Enabled Satellites

 

28 September 2010

ORBCOMM Inc. and OHB System AG have entered into an agreement to build and launch two AIS enabled satellites. 

 

The AIS Satellite Deployment and License Agreement provides for OHB, through its affiliate LuxSpace Sarl, to construct and launch two AIS microsatellites and provide the required ground support equipment. ORBCOMM will receive exclusive licenses for AIS data collected by these two satellites and nonexclusive licenses for a third satellite (Pathfinder 3), expected to be launched by LuxSpace. These two satellites, planned to be launched in the second quarter of 2011, will provide additional coverage and AIS data in the polar and equatorial regions and will supplement ORBCOMM’s constellation of 18 AIS enabled next generation satellites that are planned to begin being launched next year. This constellation and existing worldwide ground infrastructure is designed to provide AIS users the most comprehensive and near real-time coverage of any satellite system.

 

LuxSpace Sarl has successfully demonstrated its expertise in satellite AIS with the launch of Pathfinder 2 in September 2009, which continues to provide AIS data, and its LUXAIS AIS receiver on board the International Space Station, which is expected to be activated in October 2010. “The two satellites for ORBCOMM will be based on the experience acquired in the previous projects and will allow higher detection rates compared to the satellites launched so far,” noted Jochen Harms, Managing Director of LuxSpace.

 

"The new satellites will be launched into new orbital planes to provide ubiquitous coverage for our AIS service and supplement the current ORBCOMM AIS service and the planned next generation satellites," said Marc Eisenberg, CEO of ORBCOMM. “We look forward to adding this additional capability to our existing satellite AIS service and to the next generation satellite constellation we are preparing to deploy. ORBCOMM is committed to continuing to provide the best solution for satellite AIS data services."