On July 1 the Prime Minister introduced Canada’s newest astronauts, Jennifer Sidey and Joshua Kutryk. In this final episode of the Astronauts Wanted series you get to see behind the scenes the day before the announcement through to their introduction at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters where they met their new co-workers and their families.

Earlier this year Canada hosted the European Space Agency (ESA) 2017 ESA Earth Explorer science meetings. They included the Fourth Swarm Science Meeting & Geodetic Missions Workshop and the North American Cryosat Science Meeting for the Swarm and Cryosat missions which Canada is a part of.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) this week released a Request for Information (RFI) for the proposed Quantum Encryption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat) mission.

Moon Express has raised $45 million(US), built hardware, tested some of it, and gotten the FAA and other government agencies to approve of its first commercial mission to the moon, and in less than a year might have its first spacecraft on the moon.

Of the 21 university teams that entered the Canadian Reduced Gravity Experiment Design Challenge (CAN-RGX), four will get a chance to fly to their microgravity experiments today thanks to the collaboration between Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) Canada, the National Research Council and the Canadian Space Agency. 

The latest SpaceQ podcast is out and this week we’re doing something a little different. My guest is Wayne Ellis, a space and defence consultant with AppSpace Solutions of Winnipeg who was also a past president of the Canadian Space Society.

While innovation is seemingly in every funding press release issued by the government, there’s little innovation happening in Ottawa’s bureaucracy, and that’s hampering business to the point that foreign investment dollars in Canada’s space sector might head for more responsive countries. Throw in an apparent government conflict of interest, and you’ve got a Made in Ottawa bureaucratic migraine for the government.

The Canadian Space Agency has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a Mission Contribution Study for the Japanese led LiteBIRD satellite as part of its ongoing effort to support the space astronomy communities decadal plan of 2010, since revised in 2016.

Between April 24-28 of this year China and Canada met in Ottawa for the second exploratory discussions on a possible free trade agreement. If Canada moves forward with negotiating a free trade agreement it must ensure that Canada’s domestic space sector is adequately protected, unlike the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) agreement with the European Union.

In 2016 Jim Cantrell and group of veteran space professionals started Vector Space Systems. Their goal? Nothing less than than building a small satellite launch company capable of launching upwards of 100 small satellites a year from at least three spaceports.