About NGC

Shaping the future of autonomous exploration

NGC Aerospace is a high-tech Canadian SME recognised for the design and deployment of artificial vision, guidance, navigation and control systems for the autonomous operation of space, aerial and terrestrial vehicles. The analyses, algorithms, simulators and real-time software developed by NGC are intended to increase the autonomy, performance, reliability and safety of these intelligent vehicles while at the same time reducing their operational cost. From theoretical concepts and innovations to satellites and autonomous rovers currently in operation, NGC has demonstrated creativity, quality, excellence and performance consistent with its motto.

 

Vision

It has been said that the recent major technological revolutions have been to first, connect cities to cities (railroads, roads, airplanes), then connect people to people (telephone, radio, TV, satellite communications, Internet, social media) and more recently, connect people to systems (car drivers to GPS, ships to AIS, cultivators to UAV).

These systems are increasingly intelligent and autonomous, with the ability to fulfill a task or a mission with little or no human intervention. The human operator becomes a remote observer who provides only high-level directives. Many of these systems are mobile platformd whose dynamic motion needs to be controlled safely and accurately in its operational – sometimes poorly known, sometimes unpredictable – environment.

As exemplified by autonomous cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, CubeSat and fly-by-wire aircraft, the miniaturisation of equipment, the reduction in the cost of hardware, the increasing sophistication of algorithms and the expanding computing capabilities of microcomputers have contributed to the exponential growth of intelligent systems for moving platforms.

NGC’s vision is to become a leading provider of the innovative and enabling technologies that are critical to the realisation of the third technological revolution: developing intelligent systems for the benefit of people.

Mission

Shaping the future of autonomous exploration through ingenuity, knowledge and collaboration.

NGC is designing and deploying the computer intelligence for moving platforms with the aim of increasing their autonomy, performance, reliability and safety while reducing their development and operational costs.

The mobile systems of interest include Earth satellites, planetary orbiters, landers, rovers and pilotless aerial vehicles. NGC’s guidance, navigation and control software has accumulated over 50 years of successful operation in orbit and has contributed to the technologies enabling the high autonomy, agility and accuracy of future aerospace systems.

 

History

 

2024

  • NGC celebrates successful launch and deployment of Proba-3 satellites for which it contributed the onboard software intelligence.

Proba-3 Successful Launch

2023

  • NGC demonstrates its autopilot, flight and vehicle management software technology in flight on Laflamme Aero’s LX300 tandem rotor helicopter drone at the CED Alma test site.

LX300 Winter Deployment

  • NGC demonstrates in flight the Detect and Avoid and Landing Zone Assessment prototype technologies integrated with its autopilot software.

ESA Technology Transfer Success Story – Landing zone assessment using Lidar: space technology to enable a new class of drones

DAADS Project

2022

 

2021

 

2020

  • NGC’s navigation technology is selected for operation on-board Firefly Aerospace’s Moon landing mission.
  • NGC’s autopilot flies for the first time on board Beta Technologies’ drone platform

2018

  • NGC contributes to Laflamme Aero’s LX300 first flight.

2016

  • Consolidation of NGC’s offices and laboratory into one main site in the Sherbrooke Technopark.
  • NGC hosts the 20th IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Aerospace in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with more than 100 attendees from 19 different countries.
  • Launch of the ESA Sentinel 3A satellite with NGC’s AOCS technology on board.

2015

  • Initiation of drone technology development activities.
  • Expansion of NGC’s co-development & training services.

 

2013

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

2010

  • Expansion of the NGC laboratory with a scaled Moon-landing capability.

2009

  • Launch of the second “intelligent” satellite, the Sun observation PROBA-2 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.
  • Foundation of NGC Aerospace France to lead the European expansion of NGC.
  • Opening of the NGC Laboratory in the Industrial Park of Sherbrooke, Quebec. The laboratory is used to simulate autonomous landing on Mars using hazard detection and avoidance.

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 office space in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Work in the new office begins in January 2005.

2002

  • Extension of NGC’s activities to the control of planetary exploration satellites.

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.

2001

  • Launch of the first “intelligent” European satellite, PROBA-1. The onboard 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 is completely developed using computer-aided, model-based design with automatic generation of the flight code.

 

  • Foundation of NGC Aerospace by Jean de Lafontaine.

1998

  • Early work of Jean de Lafontaine on the PROBA-1 satellite, initiating a new generation of autonomous satellites, reducing the cost of design and the cost of operation of future terrestrial satellites. The PROBA program of the European Space Agency (ESA) is aimed at demonstrating the benefits of space autonomy.

Team

Meet NGC’s dynamic team

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Career

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