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[b]UrtheCast Announces Commercial Availability Of Earth Imagery and Provides An Update On Its High-Resolution Camera[/b] UrtheCast Corp. today provided an update on the commissioning process for its Medium-Resolution Camera ("MRC" or "Theia") and its Ultra HD, High-Resolution Camera ("HRC" or "Iris"). The MRC has achieved Initial Operational Capability ("IOC"), completing the MRC's commissioning phase. Theia is now capable of commercial imaging and UrtheCast will continue to refine the operational and processing systems required to meet increased order volumes and produce value-added consumer products and services. "Successful completion of the MRC's commissioning phase is a significant milestone for our team. We're extremely grateful for the hard work of the engineering teams at UrtheCast, RSC Energia, and Roscosmos. This is another testament to how well these teams continue to work together," commented UrtheCast's Chief Technology Officer, Dr. George Tyc. UrtheCast is continuing commissioning and calibrating the HRC. The Bi-axial Pointing Platform ("BPP"), which controls the pointing of the HRC, is experiencing difficulties in achieving the pointing control precision needed for the HRC to meet image quality specifications. Our engineering team together with RSC Energia believes it has developed a solution to this problem using existing gyroscopes on the HRC to improve the BPP pointing control. This solution has been successfully tested on the ground. The on-orbit implementation of this solution requires software updates and the installation of additional cabling inside the Zvezda module. These new cables need to be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). As a result, there will be a several month delay in commissioning the HRC. "We are very pleased with the solution developed by the team, and with the results of the ground tests demonstrating the expected performance. While there is never a 100% guarantee until the test results are replicated on-orbit, we are very confident this solution will enable us to capture high-resolution imagery and video with the HRC," said UrtheCast's CEO, Scott Larson. "Operations in space are complex and not always as predictable as many of us would like them to be. Although the technical issues affecting the commissioning of the HRC have delayed our previously disclosed commissioning schedule, we believe these issues can be resolved and we do not expect that this delay will affect the viability of our product offering." UrtheCast has notified its insurers regarding the potential of a claim against our in-orbit insurance policy for revenue interruption due to the commissioning delay and costs related to implementing the proposed solution. The Company's recent announcement regarding the opportunity to install and operate sensors on the NASA module of the ISS will result in additional development costs. UrtheCast anticipates funding these development costs over the next 3 years from a combination of non-dilutive third party funding, available cash and internal cash flow. UrtheCast is currently in an advanced stage of negotiation on a long-term contract that, if successfully concluded, would provide a substantial source of non-dilutive financing for the additional sensors.
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