Space programme to start commercial operations in 2020: Addvalue Tech

MAINBOARD-LISTED Addvalue Technologies on Wednesday said the space programme of Capella Space - an information service company it tied up with last year - will start commercial operations in 2020.

Sales from the commercialisation of Addvalue Tech's inter-satellite data relay system (IDRS) terminal are expected to "progressively contribute in a significant way" to the group's revenue and performance for the last quarter of fiscal 2020, and the following financial year, said the communications technology products developer in a regulatory update on Wednesday.

It is also expecting IDRS hardware sales and the associated airtime revenue to grow at "an accelerated pace" starting from early 2020.

Capella's space programme will kick start with the launch of seven low earth orbit synthetic aperture radar, or LEO SAR, satellites. Capella had on Jan 21 unveiled its evolved satellite design, which encompasses Addvalue Tech's IDRS terminal to enable real-time tasking and imagery capture anywhere on Earth at any time.

IDRS terminals will be embedded in Capella's next six commercial satellites after the launch of Capella's first production satellite, Sequoia, on a SpaceX rocket in March.

Addvalue Tech shares started the morning as the most heavily traded as at 9.03am, up 0.3 Singapore cent or 11.5 per cent to S$0.029 with 9.7 million shares traded. The counter then clawed back some of its gains, trading at S$0.028 as at 10.18am, up 0.2 cent or 7.7 per cent.