When the Canadian Space Agency announced that Spire Global, a U.S. headquartered company, through its small Canadian subsidiary exactEarth, was awarded a contract for the next phase of the WildFireSat constellation program it raised two key questions. Those questions then led to even more questions.
On Friday, February 7, 2025 at news conference at the headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) the agency announced that it had awarded a $72 million contract to exactEarth Ltd. a subsidiary of Spire Global. Not mentioned in the press materials is the fact that this contract is for Phases B and C of the mission.
Phase B is the Preliminary Design Phase while Phase C is the Detailed Design Phase. Phase D, valued at no more than $34 million is for manufacturing, system assembly, and integration. Phase D has yet to be awarded. So the maximum value of the program would be $106 million through Phase D. And while the CSA could opt not to proceed with Phase D, that’s not usually the case. Meaning it’s likely Spire Global will be awarded that contract as well.
The WildFireSat constellation will have 10 small satellites that include 7 active satellites, 2 on-orbit spares, and 1 spare on the ground in reserve for the future.
It was a big announcement and an important milestone for Canada. With the WildFireSat mission, Canada would become the first nation to build a satellite constellation for wildfires. From a price point, there aren’t many Canadian missions that get over $100 million in funding.
Attending the press conference and representing the government was Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). He was there on behalf of François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry who was otherwise engaged with the hastily organized Canada-U.S. Economic Summit to deal with the emerging tariff war with the United States instigated by the new Trump administration.
A Canadian mission without Canadian technology initially?
The two initial questions raised were, what Canadian technology was being used? And why is the CSA selecting a solution essentially coming from U.S. and German companies? OroraTech, a German company, is providing the key wildfire sensor.
SpaceQ attended the press conference virtually and asked the question as to what Canadian technology was being used. Representing Spire Global was Joel Spark who responded by saying, “So I can speak to that. So the technology will be fundamentally based on what Spire and OroraTech have already proven in space, and that’s again, to reduce the technical risk to Canadians. However, as I mentioned, Spire and OroraTech will be working with the Canadian Space Agency to augment that technology, to improve its product assurance levels and its reliability levels, and that development will happen in Canada.”
So at this stage there’s no current Canadian technology being used. After the news conference we asked the CSA by email “will there be new technology development in Canada as a result of this contract?” To which the CSA answered, “WildFireSat will be built by Spire Global Canada, a subsidiary of Spire Global Inc., based in Cambridge, Ontario. Canada’s investments in WildFireSat will directly lead to the construction of new facilities on Canadian soil for satellite fabrication and strengthen our country’s ability to build, test, and assemble small satellites, and support the ongoing growth and diversification of the Canadian space sector.”
In researching for this story we came across the related request for proposals online. Knowing that there is usually a Canadian content requirement we checked. Sure enough, in the Section 3. Work Requirements, is the following clause:
“The level of Canadian content is currently set at 80%. However, if there is important cost savings and/or risk reduction on the mission by reducing the level of Canadian content, the contractor is invited to provide the rationale and benefit of reducing the Canadian content at the CoDR and document it in the Mission Development Plan (CDRL-3).”
So we then asked the CSA and Spire Global does Spire Global Canada meet the Canadian content requirement? And if so, how?
The CSA stated, “As part of the contract, the company certified that 80% of the total contracted value will be Canadian goods or services. The company is required to document this and provide records to Canada as requested, as well as make their facilities available for examinations.”
A spokesperson for Spire Global responded saying, “The payload modules that will fly on the satellites will be sourced and built in Canada. We will assemble, integrate and test the satellites in Canada as a new capability being added to our existing Canadian site in Cambridge, Ontario, including manufacturing and testing equipment. This capability will not only support WildFireSat but also future space missions domestically.”
We also asked Spire Global is there any current Canadian technology that will be used? To which they said, “Significant technology development will take place in Canada on the payload and spacecraft (hardware and software) as part of the WFS program, building on previously demonstrated technology. We will also expand our global network of ground stations with two additional stations in Canada to support the mission, which will be built and maintained by Indigenous-owned businesses.”
In its response the CSA said that Spire Global “certified that 80% of the total contracted value will be Canadian goods or services.” So who checks that? Well, that would be Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). So we asked PSPC. They were quick to answer our original email last Friday. And they followed up on Monday asking about our deadline. And although we have followed up with them, we’ve yet to get an answer.
Spire Global’s recent troubles
Spire Global has undergone tremendous growth since its inception and we’ve covered them from the Canadian angle since they acquired ExactEarth in 2021 and established their presence here.
But the last year has seen the company deal with several problems. August of 2024 was a particularly bad month for them. Montreal headquartered NorthStar Earth & Space went to the Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice in order to get an injunction against them. The satellites NorthStar had contracted for “had issues with their optical systems and the optical payload and that one of the satellites even had ‘cracks visible in the optical system.’” NorthStar was seeking relief which Spire Global objected to and threatened to shut off access to the satellites. The injunction was granted last September.
Then they had to “restate certain historical financials” and received notice from the “New York Stock Exchange (the ‘NYSE’) that the Company is not in compliance with the NYSE’s continued listing standards.”
The company has also been carrying a lot of debt. To deal with that debt Spire Global made a $241 million USD deal on November 13, 2024 to sell it’s maritime business to Kpler, a Belgian company. The deal would allow Spire Global to pay off its debt, approximately $100 million USD at the time.
Then this past Monday Spire Global filled an 8-K current report with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which stated in part that the company had launched legal action to force Kpler to complete the acquisition of its maritime business. Kpler has decided not to close the deal. The company revealed it will also miss the NYSE imposed deadline to file its “Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q” with the SEC “for the quarter ended June 30, 2024” by February 19, 2025. Though it “currently expects to finalize the restatements by the end of February 2025 or in early March 2025.”
The last item from the 8-K form relates to “Outstanding Indebtedness and Liquidity” and Spire Global states that, “As of December 31, 2024, the Company had $19.2 million of cash and cash equivalents. Of the $19.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, approximately $14.4 million was held outside of the United States, the remaining $4.8 million was held in the United States.” The company is low on funds and will have trouble meeting its cash needs. It’s trying to raise further funds but they also stated that “there is substantial doubt about the the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from the date of this filing.” This implies there’s the possibility it could go bankrupt.
It should be noted here that exactEarth’s business is part of the maritime business that Spire Global had reportedly sold. We asked Spire Global if the sale included some of the assets acquired from exactEarth? And if so, what were those assets? While the Spire Global representative answered our other questions, we’ve yet to receive a response on this follow up question.
Developing Canadian wildfire technology
Part of the mandate of the Canadian Space Agency is to spur technology development in Canada so that Canadian businesses can export their technology and of course have it used at home.
The WildFireSat mission has a long history. And thanks to another Canadian department involved in the project, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), a detailed history was put together and included in a May 2024 WilfFireSat e-Bulletin (PDF).
The roots of the WildFireSat mission date back to the mid-80’s. You can read the condensed history in the bulletin. What is important is that it details the development Canadian technology to detect wildfires from space. This included a sensor developed by INO (Institut National d’Optique) that was tested and validated in 2019.
This led to the CSA issuing the first concept contract to an MDA led team and included concepts “based on the latest INO microbolometer sensors.”
Then the Phase A contracts were awarded in June 2023 and three teams emerged. MDA, Spire Global/OroraTech and a team led by EarthDaily Analytics. We know the latter included INO as a partner.
Now that the Phase B/C contract has been awarded to Spire Global, the INO technology that has been developed over a long period of time and which the governments own department, NRCan, says had tested and validated, won’t be used.
Since Spire Global’s establishment into Canada in 2021 we checked government records to see if they’ve been awarded any contracts other than for exactEarth’s maitime work. We found only the one record, the June 2023 WildFireSat Phase A contract for the “definition and Implementation Phases Preparatory Work (Stage1) for the Wildfire Satellite Mission.”
Optics and the tariff war
Another odd thing about the press conference was the fact that their CEO Theresa Condor was not present. This was an important announcement.
We can only surmise that Condor, who is based in Munich, was busy working with other executives in preparing to file their form 8-K with the SEC this past Monday.
Representing the company was Joel Spark who is listed as Spire Global’s “Director, Chief Satellite Designer.” He also happens to be Canadian. Until July 2023 he had been based in Glasgow and San Francisco for 11 years. He’s listed as being based in Cambridge.
While Spark is Canadian, how many other people does Spire Global have in Canada? After all, they don’t manufacture anything here, and it doesn’t look like develop technology here yet. We might assume there were Canadians other than Spark involved in the bid that won. But we also know that their existing Canadian based business is exactEarth’s maritime business and people are working there that as well.
The Spire Global company spokesperson told us that they only have one office in Canada, in Cambridge, Ontario and that they “have around 20 employees in Canada.” They also said, “and as I mentioned, we plan to hire to support the WFS program.” What’s the split between those working on WildFireSat and exactEarth’s maritime business? A look at their exactEarth and Spire Global LinkedIn company pages show only a handful of engineers listed in Canada. The Spire Global website however is currently listing four jobs openings in Cambridge.
So Spire Global, a U.S. headquartered company has won a contract for what is an important Canadian mission. And which by their own words is using “technology (that) will be fundamentally based on what Spire and OroraTech have already proven in space,” meaning developed elsewhere.
The optics don’t look good, especially now with our souring relations with the U.S. It looks like the CSA couldn’t find a way to support the existing Made in Canada technology and companies. Only the CSA can answer why the Spire Global bid was chosen and was better than the Canadian developed solution. The optics look like the CSA is supporting, subsidizing, a U.S. headquartered company in getting a bigger presence in Canada.
And you know that Minister François-Philippe Champagne would have loved to make this announcement, after all it’s a major program. Alas, regrettably, he was elsewhere dealing with the emerging tariff war with the U.S.
