The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and the Canadian company Iunctus Geomatics have jointly formed a new company PrioraNet Canada. This will pursue business opportunities related to ground stations in Canada. The initial venture is a station that is being built at Inuvik, north of the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Northwest Territories.

The Inuvik Satellite Station will play a vital role in SSC's global ground station network PrioraNet. By utilizing SSC's own stations as well as partner stations around the world, PrioraNet offers a near-global coverage of satellites in any Earth orbit.

It is the largest commercial network of ground stations for satellite communication in the world.

"Iunctus Geomatics was the first operator of a commercial ground station in Canada and they are well established on the Canadian market", says Mikael Stern, General Manager for the Satellite Operations Division, SSC. "To consolidate our forces with them gives both of us a stronger position to pursue the Canadian market".

"SSC has provided reliable satellite management services to satellite owners and operators around the world for more than thirty years", says Ryan Johnson, President of Iunctus Geomatics Corporation. "This was of great importance when we chose our partner in order to expand our company's services to the Canadian and international markets".

The German space organisation DLR is the first organisation on-site at the Inuvik Satellite Station. Test images from the German satellite TerraSAR-X have already been successfully received. The next satellite to use the Inuvik Satellite Station will be Tandem-X, planned for launch at the end of 2009.