Canadian satellite AIS service provider exactEarth Ltd,has announced that the final six payloads for its second-generation constellation, exactView RT, are now operational, which completes the roll-out of world’s first global, real-time Satellite-AIS service.

This capability is expected to enable a wide variety of new service capabilities for the global maritime community and to contribute strongly over the next 15 years or more to the improvement of maritime safety, commerce, navigation, environmental management, and security.

exactView RT consists of 58 operational payloads and seven orbital spares that were designed and built by Harris Corporation and that are hosted onboard the Iridium NEXT constellation of satellites. The Iridium NEXT satellites were deployed over a series of eight successful launches completed in under two years.

Peter Mabson, CEO of exactEarth said: “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 eNavigation. As exactView RT makes its way into the market with the ability to provide reliable accurate pin-point vessel data instantly from anywhere in the world at any time of the day, we believe the market interest and demand will continue to grow.”

By Jake Frith