NGC History

The timeline below illustrates the main events and milestones in NGC’s history.

Always in action

November 2016

Consolidation of its offices and laboratory into one main site in the Sherbrooke Technopark.

August 2016

Host to the 20th IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Aerospace in Sherbrooke, Canada, hosting more than 100 attendees from 19 different countries.

FEBRUARY 2016

Launch of the ESA Sentinel 3A satellite with NGC’s AOCS technology on-board.

Image: ©ESA

MAY 2015

Autonomous navigation for UAV

Hazard detection and avoidance for UAV

JANUARY 2015

Start work on PROBA-3

JANUARY 2014

Real-Time Multiplatform Mobile Mapping System

May 2013

Launch of the third satellite equipped with NGC’s autonomous software: PROBA-Vegetation.

Image: ©ESA–P. Carril

Summer of 2010

Expansion of the NGC laboratory with a scaled Moon landing capability using a 15 x 3 meter three-dimensional representation of the South Pole of the Moon. Terrain relative navigation and absolute navigation using crater detection and matching are demonstrated. The lab is also augmented with the capability to emulate the rendezvous of an active satellite with a passive object.

November 2009

Launch of the second “intelligent” satellite, the Sun observation PROBA-2 satellite. PROBA-2 uses the second generation of NGC’s autonomous software, along with 6 different innovative, autonomy-enabling GNC software modules for in-flight validation.

Image: ©ESA–P. Carril 2009

April 2009

Foundation of NGC Aerospace France to lead the European expansion of NGC.

December 2008

Foundation of NGC International Inc., the parent company owning the two sister companies, NGC Aerospace Ltd and, later on, NGC Aerospace France.

Summer of 2006

Opening of the NGC Laboratory at 4455 James-Edwards in the Industrial Park of Sherbrooke. The laboratory is used to simulate autonomous landing on Mars using hazard detection and avoidance.

December 2004

From a single worker in 2001, the number of employees reaches 8 by the end of 2004. The NGC headquarters move from Jean’s residence to rented office space, at 1650 King Ouest, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Work in the new office begins in January 2005.

August 2002

Extension of NGC’s activities to the control of planetary exploration satellites. First concept of an autonomous obstacle avoidance system for landing on Mars.

2001-2004

Expansion of the collaboration between NGC and the European Space Agency on several R&D projects, ranging from Earth-bound scientific and remote-sensing satellites to planetary exploration vehicles.

October 2001

Launch of the first European “intelligent” satellite, PROBA-1. The on‑board guidance, navigation and control (GNC) software designed and developed by NGC provides the satellite with autonomy never achieved before, giving it the ability to fulfill its mission of Earth observation without human intervention. For the first time, the GNC software of an ESA satellite was completely developed using computer-aided, model-based design with automatic generation of the code.