[ Back ]   [ More News ]   [ Home ]
UrtheCast Issues RFP to Prospective Industry Partners to Serve the U.S. Government with OptiSAR™ and UrtheDaily™

VANCOUVER, Aug. 4, 2016 — (PRNewswire) — UrtheCast Corp. (TSX: UR) ("UrtheCast" or the "Company"), today announces that it has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to U.S. companies interested in a long-term strategic partnership to serve the United States Government, further to the Company's announcement on May 6, 2016. The RFP solicits prospective U.S. commercial partners with strong U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) footprints to help deliver data and services from UrtheCast's planned 8-satellite UrtheDaily™ Constellation and 16-satellite OptiSAR™ Constellation to U.S. Government user agencies.

Using input received during and since the GEOINT 2016 symposium, UrtheCast has crafted the RFP to allow prospective commercial partners to propose their best creative ideas and strategies for effectively serving the imagery data, products, and services from the Company's planned satellite constellations to end users and customers across the U.S. Government.

"We have been delighted by the feedback we've received to date and the excitement this process seems to be generating among candidate U.S. partners," explained UrtheCast President and CEO, Wade Larson. "This industry is undergoing a period of significant change – driven by economic, technological, and regulatory forces.  We're convinced that business model innovation will also be a critical element of this change. Our vision, quite simply, is to help create the partnerships and service delivery models that unlock the enormous potential of Earth observation data for the people who need it.  We believe our approach is aligned with the U.S. Government's future procurement strategies and technology roadmaps to take advantage of the new and disruptive capabilities coming from the commercial sector."   

The issuance of this RFP follows a succession of positive developments related to UrtheCast's new technologies, including recently announced research and funding agreements with government agencies related to the OptiSAR program.

For those companies seeking more information regarding the RFP, please contact Mr. Phil Downen, UrtheCast V.P. of Government Programs.

Phil Downen
1.314.227.0370
Email Contact

About UrtheCast Corp.

UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company with operations in the U.S. and Spain that serves the rapidly evolving geospatial and geoanalytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services. The Company currently operates four Earth Observation sensors in space, including two cameras aboard the International Space Station and two satellites, Deimos-1 and Deimos-2. Imagery and video data captured by these sensors is downlinked to ground stations across the planet and displayed on UrtheCast's cloud-based web platform, or distributed directly to partners and customers.

In June 2015, UrtheCast announced its plans to build, launch and operate the world's first fully-integrated, multi-spectral optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) commercial constellation of Earth Observation satellites, which is now known as OptiSAR™. The OptiSAR™ Constellation is expected to comprise 16 satellites (8 optical and 8 SAR) flying in two orbital planes, with each plane consisting of four satellite pairs, equally-spaced around the orbital plane.  Each pair of satellites will consist of a dual-mode, high-resolution optical satellite (video and pushbroom) and a dual-band high-resolution SAR satellite (X-band and L-band), flying in tandem. By employing two orbital planes, the OptiSAR™ Constellation will provide for maximum revisit rates in the mid-latitudes, while providing global coverage extending to the poles. OptiSAR™ will be deployed over multiple launches and is expected to begin operations in 2021. 

In March 2016, UrtheCast announced its UrtheDaily™ Constellation concept, consisting of eight additional electro-optical satellites equiphased in a sun synchronous orbit and designed to provide coverage of the Earth's entire landmasses (excluding Antarctica) in six-band multi-spectral imagery every single day.  UrtheCast believes that, if realized, the 24 satellites of UrtheDaily™ and OptiSAR™ will represent an unprecedented capability for daily global collection, monitoring, change detection, and tipping-and-cueing. Common shares of UrtheCast trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ticker 'UR'.

For more information, visit UrtheCast's website at  www.urthecast.com.

Forward Looking Information
This release contains certain information which, as presented, constitutes "forward-looking information" or "forward-oriented financial information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information involves statements that relate to future events and often addresses expected future business and financial performance, containing words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", and "expect", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could" or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions and includes, but is not limited to: its plans for and timing of expansion of its product offering and value-added services; its future growth and operations plans; the success of a strategic partnership between UrtheCast and a U.S. partner to serve U.S. Government customers; the acceptance by its customers and the marketplace of new satellite imaging content, technologies and solutions; and the design, build, completion and operation of the proposed OptiSAR and UrtheDaily constellations. Such statements reflect UrtheCast's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by UrtheCast, are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors could cause UrtheCast's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, any delays or failures in its ability to finance, design, develop, construct, launch and commission the proposed OptiSAR or UrtheDaily constellations, as well as those factors and assumptions discussed in UrtheCast's annual information form dated March 29, 2016, (the "AIF"), which is available under UrtheCast's SEDAR profile at  www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information is developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, in the AIF, and as disclosed from time to time on UrtheCast's SEDAR profile. UrtheCast undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by Canadian securities laws. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

SOURCE UrtheCast Corp.

Contact:
UrtheCast Corp.
Jeff Rath, EVP, Corporate Finance and Strategy
Phone: +1 (604) 669-1788
Web: www.urthecast.com