[SatNews] From India, the latest satellite for this Company has been pushed off the launch pad...

exactEarth Ltd., a provider of satellite AIS data services, has announced that a satellite containing its Automatic Identification System (AIS) payload has been successfully launched from Sriharikota, India. The AIS payload, which was designed and built by COM DEV International in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, and its European subsidiary, COM DEV Europe, is integrated onto the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) ResourceSat-2 Earth observation satellite. exactEarth is targeting June 1st for the AIS payload to enter service, following an anticipated six-week commissioning period for the satellite. The Company plans to deploy three additional high performance AIS satellites later this year as it continues to build out its constellation. “Today’s launch is an important milestone for us as we establish our full operational capability,” said Peter Mabson, President of exactEarth. “This is the most advanced satellite-based AIS payload ever launched. We expect it to generate more than 1 million AIS messages per day, utilizing our ground-based message processing technology, as it orbits the globe every 90 minutes.”