Tag Archives: This Week in Space for Canada

European Space Agency (ESA) member countries (including Canada) band together in Brussels to plot strategy while commercial newspace movers and shakers descend upon New Mexico to book billets on Space Ship 2. Canadian space entrepreneur Bob Richards forms a new team to (evidently) compete against his old team for the Google Lunar X Prize and Telesat takes the chance of including an x-band payload in …

The “Mother Corp.” asks when (not if) Canadians should stop looking for life on Mars and the Canadian Forces (CF) tells the US military that their aim is to develop a professional CF space cadre (with American help of course) but the UK Space Innovation and Growth Team (Space IGT), boldly goes forward amid growing speculation that England may no longer be just a small …

With conference season in full swing and SpaceRef Co-founder and Senior Editor Marc Boucher in Prague covering the 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC2010) all this week, it’s time to take a quick look at some of the other space focused events, conferences and conventions coming up over the next little while.

Zombie satellite refuses to die; threatens Anik F3! Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Constellation program also refuses to die and continues to swallow whole the brains, money and other assets rightly belonging to others in the US space program but not Canadian government favorite Macdonald Detwiller (MDA) which just keeps going and going. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

The Space Security Index (SSI) releases its seventh annual report just in time for the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) teleconference on space debris and traffic management. Meanwhile, completed Canadian components of the James Webb Space Telescope begin showing up at Goddard Space Flight Center for final testing and MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) Chief Executive Daniel Friedmann states that his company “hasn’t always …

Com Dev International‘s CEO gets fired but shouldn’t feel lonely since up to 5% of the firms labour force could be joining him on the unemployment lines due to ongoing problems with government satellite contracts. Meanwhile Carleton University sets up a Canada-India centre of excellence in science, technology, trade and policy and an ex-french paratrooper living in North Battleford plans to skydive from 120,000 feet. …

Our Prime Minister again endorses RadarSat Constellation, then reminds us that he increased Canadian Space Agency (CSA) funding in March 2010 so funding delays are now “a thing of the past,” just so long as nobody needs any cash until next year, which may or may not be good news for Com Dev International which warned investors on August 26th of continued cost-growth problems with …

The Winnipeg Free Press reminds us that the Canadian aerospace industry has always straddled a dense political minefield while European based independent advocate Catherine Laplace-Builhe promotes the Canadian Space Agency (or at least she did until US based Facebook shut her down) and the Canadian contractor for the upcoming ExoMars mission reminds me personally that they consider their Canadian contribution to be “significant” and something …

With the Wall Street Journal reporting that shrinking budgets and national rivalries are slowly undermining European space programs and the Asia Times noting that the cash strapped National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is still able to find US$30 million in new funding for Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) contestants and the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF) opening it’s Canadian Arctic doors to collect data for …

Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean tells the Winnipeg Free Press that his cash poor agency is developing a space policy which lines up behind the Obama administration, the Washington Post tells it’s readers that the cash poor U.S. space policy is already lined up on “a collision course with itself” due to a lack of funding and cash flush private satellite operator SES publicly …