posted 11-24-2013 05:18 PM               

When the UrtheCast platform goes live, you'll be able to view the Earth in all its beauty, in a whole new way. UrtheCast's cameras will begin to stream videos and imagery from the ISS while the platform showcases parts of the globe and helps you tour around your favorite locales.

posted 12-03-2013 09:00 AM               

Later in 2014, the company plans to offer free Internet streaming of that imagery, providing the public with a continuous view of Earth from the space station.

After a four-day journey to the space station... the video camera in addition to a still camera and associated hardware will be installed on a movable platform attached to the exterior of the Russian Zvezda service module. "From there, the cameras will go through an on-board commissioning process, which will take a few months," said Scott Larson, chief executive of UrtheCast of Vancouver, British Columbia.

posted 12-30-2013 01:21 PM               

UrtheCast Camera Installation Update

UrtheCast Corp. announces that on Dec. 27, 2013, its two Earth observation cameras were installed as planned on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS). However, Mission Controllers were unable to confirm that the cameras were receiving power from the ISS. As a safety precaution, the cameras were removed and re-stowed inside the ISS pending resolution of the problem. UrtheCast expects to provide further information and the date of the rescheduled space walk by mid-January or sooner as information becomes available. At this time, the Company expects that there will be little or no material impact on its business plan for 2014.

The installation of the cameras proceeded according to plan and without incident. During a spacewalk, Russian cosmonauts were able to transport the cameras to their mounting position and install them quickly and efficiently. However, soon after installation, the Mission Control Centre (MCC) outside of Moscow was unable to receive any data from either camera (contrary to what was reported during the live transmission of the spacewalk). Without this data, engineers in the MCC were not able to confirm that the cameras were receiving the power necessary to allow them to survive the temperature fluctuations of the space environment. As a consequence, senior technical personnel from UrtheCast and RSC Energia (UrtheCast's Russian partner) jointly decided that the safest and most prudent course of action was to uninstall the cameras and bring them back inside the ISS to be reinstalled at a later date, once the data transmission problem has been solved.

UrtheCast's Chief Technology Officer, Dr. George Tyc, was present at the MCC throughout the operation, along with the Company's Chief Engineer for Space Systems, Mr. Greg Giffin. Said Dr. Tyc, "The fact the neither camera could communicate with the MCC strongly suggests that the problem lies inside the ISS and it is not a problem with the cameras or external cables. This kind of issue has been encountered before on the ISS and can be fixed in the near-term. Bringing the cameras back inside to be installed another day was simply the right engineering decision."

RSC Energia has formed a Commission to quickly analyze and fix the problem and it has already held its first meeting. This is standard procedure at RSC Energia, which has a long and very successful history with manned space systems — it has established a rigorous process to deal quickly and efficiently with anomalies of this type when they occur. The Commission will work in close cooperation with UrtheCast's engineering team. Once the Commission completes its assessment and has determined the timeline for the fixes required, a second spacewalk will be scheduled to reinstall the cameras.

"Delays like this happen in space. That's the nature of the business," explained Scott Larson, UrtheCast's Chief Executive Officer. "The critical thing is to proceed carefully and deliberately, without taking undue risk. Fortunately, our project is on a manned platform, which gives us the ability to respond to incidents of this kind as they arise. The right decision was made to ensure the long-term success of this joint project. We are grateful for the extraordinary professionalism and dedication of UrtheCast's and RSC Energia's technical personnel."

UrtheCast will provide an update with further progress regarding the cameras' rescheduled installation as information becomes available, which will be confirmed by the results of the Commission. In the meantime, UrtheCast is focusing its efforts on the commissioning and testing of the other parts of the system and will continue its business development efforts.

posted 01-10-2014 11:30 AM               

UrtheCast Cameras Rescheduled For Installation

UrtheCast Corp. is very pleased to announce that its two Earth imaging cameras have now been cleared for installation aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The issue that delayed the initial installation of the cameras has now been resolved, allowing for the scheduling of the next spacewalk, which is expected by the end of January.

As initially suspected, the problem was found to be a cabling issue inside the ISS. RSC Energia, the Moscow Mission Control Centre, and the cosmonauts collectively participated in identifying and verifying the cause of the anomaly. The engineering team has already implemented and tested the solution.

"We are extremely grateful for the extraordinary work by Energia and the cosmonauts onboard the ISS, especially during the holidays," explained UrtheCast's Chief Executive Officer, Scott Larson. "We are confident that our cameras will soon be successfully installed and we are looking forward to collecting our first high-resolution videos."

UrtheCast will confirm the exact date of the second spacewalk to install its cameras as this information becomes available. In the meantime, the Company remains focused on the commissioning and testing of the other facets of its system and is on track with its business plan.

UrtheCast Confirms Camera Installation Date

UrtheCast is pleased to announce that its two Earth imaging cameras have been scheduled for installation aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Jan. 27, 2014.

"With the ISS cabling issue now resolved, we expect that the second spacewalk will result in a complete installation," explained UrtheCast Corp. chief executive officer, Scott Larson. "We are again thankful for the hard work of the engineering teams at Roscomos, Energia, and UrtheCast, which were able to quickly isolate and resolve the issue. We're now confident that our business plan will remain unaffected."

posted 01-28-2014 10:03 AM               

UrtheCast Cameras Successfully Installed On International Space Station

UrtheCast Corp. is very pleased to announce that its two earth imaging cameras have been successfully installed on the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). Contrary to the online broadcast of the installation, the telemetry was received by Mission Control Central near Moscow. During the installation, we were able to complete all of the intended tests during the spacewalk. At this time, all telemetry received and analyzed is within our expected results.

Today, Jan. 27, cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky performed a spacewalk (EVA-37a) to reinstall the two UrtheCast cameras that were previously installed and removed during a spacewalk on Dec. 27, 2013 (EVA-37).

"We're again extremely grateful to Energia and Roscosmos for providing such quick and efficient technical support throughout the camera installation process," explained UrtheCast's Chief Executive Officer, Scott Larson. "With the cameras now successfully installed and communicating with Mission Control, UrtheCast can now focus on the routine commissioning of the cameras in preparation for the unveiling of our Ultra HD, color video of Earth."

posted 04-03-2014 08:39 AM               

UrtheCast's First Release Of Earth Imagery From Space

UrtheCast Corp. is extremely pleased to announce its first release of Earth imagery, captured by UrtheCast's medium-resolution camera (MRC) onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

"This is a pivotal moment for the company and for everyone who's been a part of the vision that we set in motion in 2010," stated UrtheCast Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Scott Larson. "Our team has been working extremely hard to make certain that we reach this goal of democratizing a very powerful perspective on the world. We couldn't be more grateful to the incredibly determined engineering teams at UrtheCast, RSC Energia, and Rutherford Appleton Laboratories."

Captured on March 28, 2014, at 1pm GMT, this image is centered around the city of Moneague, Jamaica, and has a 6-meter GSD (Ground Sampling Distance). The photo is approximately 3200 x 8000 pixels, and covers approximately 300 square kilometers. The MRC is a multispectral, nadir-pointing imager that captures 6-meter class, 50-km wide swaths of still imagery, which will be made commercially available on the UrtheCast platform.

While the images will be made available on an individual basis, they will also be processed and constantly streamed to the UrtheCast platform. This will be realized on the interactive platform as a near realtime flyover view of the planet directly below the ISS as it orbits the globe 16 times every day.

In preparation for the unveiling of its full color, Ultra HD Earth video from space, UrtheCast remains focused on the commissioning and calibration of its cameras, in addition to ground system testing and the continuation of its business plan.

posted 07-17-2014 07:37 AM               

UrtheCast & NanoRacks To Install Earth Observation Cameras On NASA Segment Of Space Station

UrtheCast Corp. is very pleased to announce that pursuant to its agreement with NanoRacks, LLC it plans to dramatically expand its Earth Observation data stream by operating state-of-the-art sensors on the NASA segment of the International Space Station (ISS).

The installation of the sensors further enhances UrtheCast's market leadership for Space Station-based Earth Observation (EO). The Company intends to develop and supply the EO sensors, electronics and all related hardware. NanoRacks, working with the U.S. National Lab manager CASIS, will facilitate the launch, installation and onboard integration of the cameras and hardware in accordance with its Space Act Agreement with NASA.

UrtheCast intends to develop two Sensors, a high resolution dual-mode optical/video camera and a high resolution dual-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which will complement its current sensors aboard the ISS. The co-location of these sensors will allow for new EO products that are not currently available to the market. The sensors and their components are scheduled to launch to the ISS in 2016, and it is anticipated that the data will be available in 2017.

"This is certainly a significant advancement of UrtheCast's business plan," explained UrtheCast CEO, Scott Larson. "Having additional sensors on the International Space Station not only mitigates our technology risk, but also adds to our current suite of cameras aboard the Station, improving upon the quality and quantity of data that we can offer our customers — for everything ranging from scientific research to resource monitoring." Added Larson, "this initiative reflects our belief in the International Space Station as an ideal platform for Earth Observation."

"It was envisioned that the National Lab would increase the utilization of the ISS by other Federal entities and the private sector through partnerships, cost-sharing agreements, and other arrangements that would supplement NASA funding of the ISS. Being both educational and scientifically focused, these sensors will help augment NASA's efforts to more fully utilize the International Space Station as a National Lab, while enabling more private sector participation. We're looking forward to working with both NanoRacks and UrtheCast as we see this project through to completion," stated Michael Read, NASA manager of the ISS National Lab Office.

posted 07-17-2014 07:38 AM               

UrtheCast Announces Commercial Availability Of Earth Imagery and Provides An Update On Its High-Resolution Camera

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.

posted 06-17-2015 10:14 AM               

London, Boston, Barcelona: The World's First Full-Color HD Videos Of Earth From Space

Today, UrtheCast released the world's first, full-color HD videos of Earth, filmed from the International Space Station (ISS) at roughly one-meter resolution. These videos of London, Boston, and Barcelona showcase life on Earth as viewed from the International Space Station, revealing the diverse utility of UrtheCast's technology.

"Today, we are continuing our advancement towards democratizing the Earth Observation industry, making timely Earth video and imagery from space accessible to everyone," explained Scott Larson, UrtheCast Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. "With the ultimate goal of connecting the planet and highlighting what unites us all, we're revealing a perspective of Earth from space that was previously reserved for a small few. By opening up our API to the web development community, we're providing collaboration tools that will help people monitor, protect, and benefit our world and will lead to the democratization of Earth Observation imagery."

Ranging in length from 34 to 47 seconds, and covering areas of up to 1.19 x 0.67 miles (1.92 x 1.08 kms), Iris has captured full-color HD data that is, as of yet, unparalleled.

Wade Larson, UrtheCast Co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer, added: "We are realizing UrtheCast's mission to bring something really quite unique to the Earth Observation industry. With today's video release, we continue to move towards being able to deliver fast, scalable, and affordable Earth Observation imagery to our customers, and ultimately broadening the market appeal and utility of space-based remote sensing.

We expect Iris to achieve Initial Operation Capability (IOC) status in the summer of 2015, complimenting the existing Medium-Resolution Camera (MRC), Theia, which reached IOC status in 2014 and is actively filling orders for imagery and data.