Surprising most people, the government unveiled $21.5 billion in new spending, more than anticipated for Budget 2018. This includes and significantly, $3.2 billion for science funding and a total of $6.4 billion for what the chapter in the budget calls Progress.
Read More »Who Will Champion the Canadian Space Program?
Tomorrow Finance Minister Bill Morneau will deliver the Liberal Party’s third budget since coming to power in October 2015. The space community awaits anxiously to see if this is the year a Canadian government steps up and supports the space program to a greater extent than it has.
Read More »SmallSat Conference Sees Black Brant Rocket CubeSat Deployer Proposal and New Canadian Rocketry Competition Proposed
The last day of the Canadian SmallSat Symposium saw something unusual happen. Typically at conferences the last couple of sessions are poorly attended as many attendees are already headed home. That was the case for the SmallSat Symposium except for a core group of rocket professionals and enthusiasts.
Read More »Planet and KSAT Threaten to Pull Ground Station Assets out of Canada (Updated)
Planet took the opportunity while presenting at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium to deliver a very public ultimatum to Global Affairs Canada. Either there is measurable progress on licensing of their ground stations in Inuvik by June 1, or they will dismantle them and leave Canada. And they weren’t the only company to threaten this action.
Read More »The Canadian Space Agency Awards $2M in Contracts for Priority Technologies and Space Utilization Study
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded a total of $2M for two priority technology development contracts along with a contract for a socioeconomic benefit study.
Read More »Opinion – Seeing the Biggest Picture: The Value of Investments in Space-based Astronomy
By: Rob Thacker, Saint Mary’s University and Matt Dobbs, McGill University. Canada was among the early leaders in the space race, becoming the 3rd nation to have a satellite in orbit with the launch of the Alouette mission in 1962, aboard a US launch vehicle. For over 50 years our federal strategy has been to achieve our space goals through tight partnerships with other nations.
Read More »Second U.S. Spacewalk by Astronauts this Year Completes Robotic Hand Transfer Work
Yesterdays spacewalk successfully completed a choreographed series of movements over three spacewalks since last fall to swap MDA built Latching End Effector’s (LEE) from the Canadarm2 to its Mobile Base System and stow one for a return to Earth.
Read More »Will Canada Develop Its Own Orbital Rocket?
In the last week and half there’s been an ongoing discussion as to whether Canada needs and should develop an indigenous orbital rocket launch capability. That’s the topic of this weeks podcast.
Read More »The Canadian Space Agency has Underspent its Budget for the Last 17 Years
In the last 17 years the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has left $802 million in planned spending unspent. In the last three years the CSA has underspent its budget by $201 million. In 2010 the Conservative government began the process of decreasing the CSA's base budget from $300 million to $260 million. The Liberal government has not restored the CSA's annual base budget funding cut. Add these points …
Read More »Is Rocketry in Canada on the Rise Again?
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch this week has ignited a debate within Canada as to whether we need our own launch capability. The government policy currently is that we don’t need the capability. Is it time to revisit or modify that policy to take into account commercial efforts?
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