Venture capital firm Tempus Global Data is seeking backers for the STORM weather data payload after its manufacturer scrapped a partnership with US start-up GeoMetWatch.
Utah State University had previously tasked GeoMetWatch with finding the estimated…
Venture capital firm Tempus Global Data is seeking backers for the STORM weather data payload after its manufacturer scrapped a partnership with US start-up GeoMetWatch.
Utah State University had previously tasked GeoMetWatch with finding the estimated US$170m needed in financial commitments to get STORM – Sounding & Tracking Observatory for Regional Meteorology – on an AsiaSat satellite due for a 2016 launch.
However, it emerged earlier this year that GeoMetWatch was struggling to secure the commitments, with time running out to include the payload on the AsiaSat-9 bird being built by SSL for Hong Kong’s AsiaSat.
The task of finding financial backers has now fallen exclusively on Tempus, whose CEO Alan Hall is a former chairman of the Utah Technology Council.
STORM, which is designed to provide geostationary coverage once hosted on six satellites, is a derivative of a cancelled NASA programme.
It aims to provide atmospheric measurements to government and commercial customers that are significantly more advanced than free alternatives.
Announcing the partnership, Hall said: “Every year, millions of people are adversely affected by the results [of] severe weather and are dependent upon data provided by outdated weather sensors.
“Our number one job is to change that paradigm – to provide better information to those who need to know so that we can enable decisions that may help save property and lives.”
AsiaSat announced plans last year to potentially launch the first STORM payload to 122E, under a cashflow sharing deal, to diversify its revenue streams. The operator at the time said the cost of the project was not expected to exceed US$185m.
Tempus is reportedly in the final stages of securing a license from the US Department of Commerce to enable it to approach potential investors about the weather platform.
GeoMetWatch secures new partner
As part of its efforts to get STORM off the ground, GeoMetWatch was granted the first commercial remote sensing licence from the US government in September 2010.
Shortly before Utah State University unveiled its tie-up with Tempus, the Las Vegas-based start-up announced it had found a new hyperspectral sounder maker in Exelis, the US aerospace and defence engineering firm, to use this licence.
Exelis already has several years of experience in the technology and said its design will be based on its Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). The manufacturer is currently under contract for seven ABI-class instruments, with the first set to be launched in 2016 aboard the US government’s GOES-R observation satellite.
GeoMetWatch CEO Edward Keible said: “Exelis’ operational experience in supporting both low Earth orbit and geostationary Earth orbit programmes is unparalleled in the industry and the right company to provide the hyperspectral sounding capability.
“In addition, Exelis has the ability to ensure on-time delivery, which is essential to meeting our clients’ needs for the critical data our programme will provide.”
GeoMetWatch, a spin-off from Utah State University’s Advanced Weather System Foundation, raised US$2m in funding in 2010 in cooperation with the university, and later received a US$1m contract to perfect the STORM technology.
Keible, a former managing partner at consultancy Capstan Advisors, was appointed to CEO in January 2014 as the group shuffled its management team in response to “increasing investor interest in the company’s growth potential”.
He replaced GeoMetWatch cofounder David Crain, who became CTO to focus on its hyperspectral forecasting data products.
