PARIS —Spire Global said Sept. 15 it will host payloads on three cubesats launching in 2023 to expand Canadian greenhouse gas monitoring operator GHGSat’s constellation.
The three satellites, each the size of 16 cubesats, are slated to join the six similarly sized spacecraft that Sep15. currently operates in low Earth orbit.
Joel Spark, co-founder and general manager of Spire’s space services business, told SpaceNews these cubesats would be dedicated to GHGSat and not host other payloads.
He said the satellites will launch in late 2023, although Spire has not yet allocated them a slot under the multi-launch agreements it has in place.
“By deferring the allocation to closer to the customer’s desired launch time, we’re able to give our customers a high degree of flexibility and protect them from schedule issues with any one vehicle or provider,” he said.
GHGSat’s previous satellites were built by the University of Toronto’s Space Flight Laboratory (SFL), which is building three more spacecraft targeting a launch in early spring.
Switzerland-based ABB is providing the gas detection payloads for all 12 satellites that GHGSat has ordered so far, which the operator has been using to track methane emissions from oil and gas facilities and other industries.
“Hosting GHGSat payloads on Spire satellites allows us to focus on monitoring rather than on satellite manufacturing and operations,” GHGSat CEO Stephane Germain said in a statement.
“Having successfully completed and launched our initial satellite assets, GHGSat plans to add hosted payload solutions to complement our full satellite solutions to accelerate monitoring.”
Additional satellites will enable GHGSat to broaden its coverage and provide more timely insights for applications including the detection of emission leaks.
Jean-Francois Gauthier, GHGSat’s vice president of measurements and strategic initiatives, said the satellite operator also aims to expand its use of drones to improve its analysis.
Early demand for GHGSat’s methane-tracking services came from the private sector, Gauthier said Sept. 15 during a World Satellite Business Week panel here.
Companies are seeking to understand more about the greenhouse gases they emit for their “investors, shareholders — also to do the right thing on the environmental side,” he said.
He said the startup is also gaining traction from governments and regulators.
“It’s a much slower developing aspect,” he added, “mainly in our case because of the acceptance of new technologies and the validation that’s required to gain confidence in the results and the quality of the data.”
Gauthier said GHGSat recently achieved a key technology readiness milestone with the European Space Agency that “goes a long way in reinforcing that … and now we can start having more and more of these discussions” with governments.
One of the three satellites Spire is developing will carry the operator’s first payload for detecting carbon dioxide emissions, Gauthier told SpaceNews.
He said GHGSat will likely need to order future satellites depending on demand, but has not decided whether to pursue Spire or SFL for these.
They are among the largest spacecraft that Spire plans to add to the more than one hundred multipurpose satellites it currently operates in LEO.
Most of these satellites are 3U in size, and the largest is currently 12U, or the size of 12 cubesats.
Spire is seeing growing demand for the space-as-a-service side of its business, which sees it manage payload integration, launch, and mission operations for the payloads it hosts.
The operator mainly provides data-gathering and analysis solutions across maritime, aviation, weather, climate, and other markets under its primary business.
The company outlined potential plans Sept. 14 to raise up to $180 million by selling shares, after listing on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2021 to expand operations.
A registration statement was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the plan, which has not yet become effective.
Spire declined to comment on how it could use these funds.