Canadian Space Agency Stories

Canada is playing an integral role as part of the Mars Science Laboratory mission and the Curiosity Rover which will attempt landing on the Red planet early Monday morning at 1:31 a.m. EDT (10:31 p.m. PDT). On board the rover is an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) Canada contributed. The APXS determines the elemental chemistry of rocks and soils using alpha particles and X-rays.

A year after the last Shuttle flight an iconic piece of Canadian hardware, the Canadarm from the orbiter Endeavour, has left the Kennedy Space Center and is on its way to the MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) Brampton facility to be “sanitized and refurbished”. Once that is complete, the Canadarm will go on display at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) headquarters in St. Hubert, …

The long delayed flight of the Canadian satellite CASSIOPE is one step closer with the successful Merlin 1D engine test firing recently completed by SpaceX.

This animation gives an overview of the next operations for the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), scheduled for June 19-21, 2012. A collaboration between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, the Robotic Refueling Mission is an experiment on the exterior of the International Space Station that uses Dextre, the Station’s Canadian-built robotic handyman, to test the technologies, tools and techniques that could be used to service …

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and France’s space agency, CNES (Centre national d’tudes spatiales) announced that they will jointly launch research balloons into the stratosphere from Timmins, Ontario, starting in 2013.

Recently Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean delivered the keynote speech for the 2012 Canadian Hydrographic Conference in Niagara Falls. The theme touched on the challenges for Canada in dealing with a warmer Arctic where the Northwest Passage could be clear of ice during summer within 25 years.

After its successful launch yesterday atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon spacecraft is currently in orbit making its way for a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday morning at 8:06 a.m. at a distance of 2.5 km below the ISS. At that time, and before the capture and berthing take place, the Dragon spacecraft will perform a series of tests …

According to an Ottawa Citizen article published yesterday the projected costs of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) have jumped from $600 million to over $1 billion . The report with the current costs was obtained by the Citizen under the Access to Information law.

Last Monday, April 23rd, Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean was the guest luncheon speaker at the International Polar Year 2012 conference being held in Montreal. Below is the transcript of that speech. Of note, MacLean once again referred to some of Canada’s current and possible future satellites as “part of that (Canada) strategic infrastructure”.

At the annual Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) meeting being held in Quebec City this week, the Canadian Space Agency honoured former Canadian Space Agency President William ‘Mac’ Evans with the John H. Chapman Award of Excellence.