The Government of Canada recently allocated $1.012 billion to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to support immediate and future satellite EO data needs — this funding will be used to:
Design and develop a replacement satellite for the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM)
Design a nexgen satellite system to succeed the RCM
This initiative is called RADARSAT+ and will ensure continuity of essential EO satellite data to numerous federal organizations so that they can continue delivering services to Canadians.
The RCM, launched in 2019, is Canada’s latest generation of EO satellites. For the past four years, the three satellites have been working together to provide daily images of Canada’s land and maritime approaches, as well as images of the Arctic and of other countries. This imagery is essential for many applications, such as monitoring the environment, managing natural resources, supporting emergency response teams and making marine travel safer.
The RCM satellites and other EO satellites are part of everyday lives and make a wide variety of services possible for Canadians.