A vote of confidence from RapidEye was validated in a new contractual agreement with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), in which MDA will be the sole supplier of direct downlink solutions for RapidEye's international ground station customers. MDA conducted the commissioning period on both the space and ground segment in which system performance and product quality have been thoroughly measured, analyzed and verified. As part of the agreement with MDA, RapidEye's international ground station customers will be provided with ground systems capable of programming, receiving and processing imagery from RapidEye's constellation of five satellites.RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate their own satellite constellation. Richat Structure - a circular formation - in the Sahara desert of Mauritania - acquired by MATI (RapidEye 2) on March 10 2009

Wolfgang Biedermann, CEO of RapidEye, commented, “The expansion of RapidEye's range of services to include direct data downlink services will complement our core products and services business and will allow us to serve even more customers with near real-time imaging requirements.”

David Hargreaves, one of MDA's Vice Presidents in the Information Systems group, said: “The strategic cooperation agreement established between MDA and RapidEye will enable our team to provide our operational defense and intelligence customers with secure, near real-time direct access to the broad area surveillance capabilities of the RapidEye constellation.