Richmond's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associations Ltd. (TSX:MDA) has won a four-year $65 million contract from Canada's Department of National Defence to develop a system to monitor objects orbiting Earth.
The space-based SAPPHIRE data collection platform will provide continuous surveillance of manmade and natural objects in medium to high Earth orbit. The data collected will update the U.S. Satellite Catalogue that's used by the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad).
SAPPHIRE is the defence department's first dedicated space mission and will support Canada's Norad commitments.
MDA will lead the project with a team that includes specialists from Cambridge, Ontario's COMDEV and Surrey, England's SSTL.
MDA's share price range during the past week: between $44.78 and $46.11; 52-week high: $53.82; 52-week low: $36.10.