Satellite AIS company exactEarth has announced that the final six payloads for its second-generation constellation, exactView RT, are now operational, completing the roll-out of its global, real-time AIS data service.
exactView RT consists of 58 operational payloads and seven orbital spares that were designed and built by Harris Corporation and are hosted onboard the Iridium NEXT constellation of satellites.
The Iridium NEXT network was deployed over a series of eight successful launches completed in just under two years, the culmination of a $3 billion Iridium programme to replace its original global satellite system, which also incorporated hosted payloads such as those from exactEarth.
exactView RT’s maritime payloads cover the entire maritime VHF radio band to capture AIS and other vessel-based VHF data services from any vessel, relaying that data to users in real-time. The system tracks a population of more than 500,000 unique vessels worldwide and generates Average Global Revisit rates and Average Latency rates of less than one minute, the company said.
“On behalf of exactEarth, I want to congratulate the teams at Iridium and Harris for their remarkable execution and overall achievement in such a short period of time,” said Peter Mabson, CEO of exactEarth.
“Iridium NEXT is without question among the world’s most technologically sophisticated constellations and we are thrilled that exactView RT will be part of this advanced, reliable and flexible platform for the next 15 years or more.”
“With its key performance capabilities of real-time data delivery, superior vessel detection, rapid update rate, longevity and continuous improvement, we believe that exactView RT provides us with a measurable and sustainable competitive advantage. We think this type of high-end service will be ideal for both commercial and government customers concerned with issues such as homeland security, search and rescue, intelligent weather routing, commodity tracking, and down the road, ‘Smartships’ and e-navigation.”
