2010
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July 2010
The first Czech win in an ESA international tender since the Czech membership in ESA
Design and development of Interference Monitor System for GNSS Reference Stations

ISS participated as the sole partner of the prime Astrium Germany in a bid for the ESA ITT AO/1-6149/09/NL/AG under the GNSS Evolution Programme - on of the optional programmes to which the Czech Republic subscribed. Already during the preparation of the bid, we were pleased to note that we are being treated as partners - despite the massive difference in size and experience of the companies. Same experience was repeated in agreeing the subcontract. The project runs for a year, and required hiring an additional engineer which will build on, and expand, the experience of the existing navigation team. The first progress meeting took place in Prague on 14-15th July.

2009
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2008
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2007
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August 2007
The first Czech company to win a project in a competitive ESA tender
Image Information Mining-Time Series

After successful completion of a two year Earth Observation project in ESA/ESRIN, Iguassu had teamed up with the Italian prime contractor partner Advanced Computer Systems, to bid for the "Information Mining" tender. The sucess of the tender is the first for a Czech company. Until now, the Czech projects in ESA were shielded from competition and based on direct negotiation with ESA project managers. This project, in which we will be providing GRID technology know-how, focuses on the design and implementation, for inclusion in the KEO system, of one or more prototype tool(s) for the automatic detection and analysis of meaningful features ("information") in image time series, obtained by SAR and optical sensor (resolution 5 to 10m). The information to be sought is to be in support to various applications like classification, change detection at global and local scale, etc, foreseen to be eventually supported by GMES.

June 2007
ISS represents the Czech Space Alliance, one of the founding members of "SME4space", the pan-European trade association of space SMEs
and witnesses the signature of the ESA/SME4space agreement by the ESA DG at the Paris air show

The initiative of the Italian and British national associations of space SME's AIPAS and ASTOS has led to the creation of a pan-European trade association SME4space,  to co-ordinate and formulate the views and the needs of SMEs wrt to the European Space Agency. The active promotion of Czech space companies by Iguassu, as the leader of the Czech Space Alliance, was recognised in that CSA had been invited to be one of the founding members of SME4space and the Iguassu MD elected on the board of SME4space.

The inauguration of SME4space, attended by Iguassu, took place on 19th June in the ESA pavillion at the Paris air show in Le Bourget with the signature of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) by the ESA General Director M. J.J. Dordain and the SME4space chairman Mr. Giovanni Sylos Labini. The agreement will enable both parties to share information on the expectations and interests of European SMEs for space programmes and activities, and facilitate SME access to ESA programmes and space activities in general. ESA's intention is to derive the maximum benefit from innovative, dynamic and entrepreneurial European SMEs by drawing on their skills, expertise and cost-effectiveness for its programmes.ex.

For details see the Czech Space Alliance website www.czechspace.eu

Announcement of the event can be view on ESA web.

May 2007
ISS presents the Czech Space Allaince in the "Japan-Czech Science and Technology Days" in Tokyo
and visits the Japanese Space Agency JAXA

This was the third annual event organised on the Czech side by Czechinvest and taking place alternatively in Japan and Prague. The aim is to promote co-operation, exchange of ideas and networking among Japanese and Czech researchers, and engineers. Iguassu presented Czech space activities and the Czech Space Alliance. The event was very well attended by personalities from hi-tech industries, universities and government ministries, and included the vice president of JAXA, the Japanese space agency. The vice president invited Iguassu to visit their space research centre in Tsukuba. After a royal welcome with the Czech flag hoisted (see picture above), we were able to visit the development installations, an exhibition, and then talk to the engineers about their projects. We agreed to keep in touch and look for opportunities for co-operation in future.

February 2007
ISS won again a place in the "EU Gateway to Japan" mission to Tokyo

イグアス ソフトウェア システムズ 社
(you need Japanese fonts installed to read the line above)

The participation in the March 2006 ICT mission to Tokyo, sponsored by EU, gave Iguassu a good first picture of the Japanese market and lead to a decision to follow up the contacts and return after better preparation. The preparation included consultancies with a Japanese business friend, creation of a Japanese page on our website as well as trying to learn some basics of the language. This time we won a place on the mission outright (having gone through the waiting/back-up list the year before). The on-site support of the Japanese friend made a huge difference to the level and quality of contacts, as well as some insight into Japanese way of life. We now have some specific leads to follow.

2006
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November 2006
November 2006 - Czechtrade recognises "Czech Space Alliance" as one of its export alliances

As a result of the initiative of Czechtrade and Iguassu, the SMEs BBT, CSRC and Iguassu agreed last summer to use the Czechtrade model of export alliances and create an association of space SMEs. In November, the group reached the minimum number of partners as stipulated by the Czechtrade rules and was formally constituted by signing the alliance kodex. By the end of 2006, the alliance had 9 members.

For details see the alliance website www.czechspace.eu

July 2006
Two new contracts in Satellite Navigation - GALILEO & EGNOS

Iguassu is increasing its experience in satellite navigation. Having successfully completed its first navigation project under the ESA PECS agreement, it embarks on two other satellite navigation projects under EGNOS and GALILEO respectively.

The good results from the completed projects PECS SISNeT project prompted ESA to propose a second phase, which the Czech Space Office recently authorised. The tasks will require increasing the size of the team and the contract will run for 18 months. The focus is on development of new functionality for the ESA SISNeT EGNOS technology, which allows more accurate and reliable navigation when EGNOS satellite signal is not available. One of the tasks will be to design and develop a new EGNOS SISNeT server to provide service for increasing user community.

The other project is GALILEO GISAR, the search and rescue facility. Iguassu is a member of the winning consortium for the GISAR interfaces, lead by INDRA Spain and including renowned space primes such as Thales, Alcatel, CAP Gemini etc. We are participating in the development of the control centre in Barcelona.

May 2006
イグアス ソフトウェア システムズ 社
(you need Japanese fonts installed to read the line above)

participates in

Iguassu has participated in the second seminar co-organised by Czechinvest, Prague Technical University, the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Education. It was a repeat of a similar action last year in Japan, and will continue in future years, alternating countries. Apart form a number of interesting presentations, this was an opportunity to meet key Japanese personalities from the Japanese industry and academy, as well as to mingle with Czech politicians. Further information about the event are on Czechinvest website.

Photographic reports of the seminar as well as the associated events, as published by the Prague Club Magazine, are avaialble for our Japanese friends for download in PDF format below.

Czech - Japan Science & Technology Days. (1.1MB)

Reception held by HE the Japanese Ambassador. (2MB)

Doctorate Honoris Causa to Dr. Schoichiro Toyoda. (1.5MB)

The Order of the Rising Sun. (800KB)

March 2006
イグアス ソフトウェア システムズ 社
(you need Japanese fonts installed to read the line above)

participates in



for ICT companies

Iguassu has participated in a European competition and won a place on a EU sponsored mission to Japan, among other twenty EU ICT companies from 11 countries. Iguassu had a stand at a common exhibition, and had a number of business meeting both at the exhibition and in the offices of various companies in and near Tokyo.
We left with a strengthened interest in the Japanese market and intend to continue pursuing the contacts made, as well as looking for news ones, perhaps in next year's EU Gateway to Japan. In the meantime we have created our first Japanese web pages and our MD has started learning basics of the Japanese language.

2005
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November 2005 - Visit of the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO with the president of Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus

April 2005 - The 1st Central European satellite station for EGNOS navigation is put into operation for ESA at Iguassu premises

October 2005 - The Minister of Education nominates ISS on the "Czech board for Space Activities"

November 2005
Iguassu joins the president of Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus on his diplomatic mission to India
Visit of the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO

Iguassu joined the group of Czech companies participating in the official mission of our president to New Delhi, Calcutta, and Bangalore. The goal for Iguassu was the presidential visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO where, with excellent and very kind support of HE Ambassador of India in Prague, Iguassu represented the Czech Space Office. From the presentation of the ISRO director for the Czech President and his diplomatic delegation, we learned many details of the impressive results achieved by India in all aspects of space technology and exploration. Among other notable and admirable achievements is the fact the India is one of only 6 countries in the world capable of launching satellites into earth (and soon even into lunar) orbit.

In the ensuing public discussion, Iguassu expressed not only their admiration for the achievements, but also some envy of the ISRO budget. Even taking apart the vast difference in population, ISRO's 700 million US$ correspond to 70 cents per capita - 7 times more than the Czech per capita contribution to ESA.

You can download the full report (5MB) prepared by Iguassu for the Czech Space Office. The main section is in Czech, but the included appendices are in English - the powerpoit presentation to ISRO, plus an older report on space programmes in Latin America.

Subsequently, Iguassu had meetings with key ISRO representatives where it presented Czech achievements, growing involvement in the European Space Agency, and plans for near future (in English, PDF download 1.7MB ) and discussed potential for co-operation with India. The trip was sponsored by the Czech Space Office (www.czechspace.cz).

April 2005
Iguassu Software Systems puts in operation the 1st Central European EGNOS IMAGE project station for ESA GNSS

Under one of the 1st industry contracts following the recently signed PECS agreement between the European Space Agency and Czech Republic, Iguassu has put into operation the first IMAGE project station in Central Europe. It is an EGNOS capable satellite navigation data receiving station, which monitors quality of satellite navigation signals, combines GPS and EGNOS signals to achieve higher accuracy, and hourly forwards the collected data to the central ESA database for recording and evaluation. The Prague results can be viewed in near-real-time under the web reference
http://ravel.esrin.esa.int/docs/egnos/estb/IMAGEtech/praha.htm
You can also reach this page, and find much interesting information about EGNOS and satellite navigation by opening the ESA navigation portal
http://www.esa.int/esaNA/index.html
clicking "EGNOS", and entering the section "EGNOS for Professionals". In this section you have access to a multitude of websites specialised in the more technical aspects of EGNOS. In particular, entering the section "IMAGE" and clicking "Real-time information" you reach all the information provided by the ESA real-time monitoring network, which includes not only global data but also, clicking on given name, specific data from each station. Thanks to Iguassu's contribution, this now also includes data from Prague.