In today’s Short Cuts: Industry sources tell SpaceRef Canada they have serious concerns over the free trade deal with the European Union. GHGSat, which hopes to launch two new satellites in the short term, passes a milestone with its Claire satellite. The National Research Council announces an Enhanced Virtual Observatory for the scientific community and more. If you would like to submit a Short Cut, …

Free trade agreements are by their very nature a means of increasing trade between two or more countries. In the case of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the deal Prime Minister Trudeau signed in Brussels on October 30th could have a significant negative effect on Canada’s domestic space industry. Industry sources SpaceRef Canada spoke to are very concerned, with one saying …

The Canadian Space Agency issued a request for proposals (RFP) today with the aim of determining the feasibility of a sub-surface ice sounder as a hosted payload on NASA’s Next Mars Orbiter (NeMO) which is a concept mission that could be headed to Mars in 2022. Earlier this year NASA held an industry day to talk about this conceptual mission. NASA Watch obtained a copy …

In today’s Short Cuts: We provide an Op-Ed on small satellite manufacturing in Canada, Work, Not Work Podcast interviews Dr. Robert Thirsk, MDA’s U.S. acquisition SSL gets long sought after satellite servicing contract, Canada searches for a Chief Science Advisor and more. If you would like to submit a Short Cut, please email us at [email protected].

It seems patience pays off. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) yesterday announced that MDA’s U.S. subsidiary Space Systems Loral (SSL) has won a $127 million contract to develop the Restore-L Spacecraft Bus which will be used to service a government satellite in low earth orbit. According to the NASA press release, SSL “will provide spacecraft bus, critical hardware and services for the development, deployment …

The Canadian government has officially begun the hunt for a Chief Science Officer, a position that the Liberals promised to create once elected. The announcement was made this morning in Ottawa by the Science Minister, the Honourable Kirsty Duncan.

Recently, there has been noteworthy news related to small satellites. First and significantly, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released details of new applications from companies wanting to deploy constellations of small satellites, most in non-geostationary orbits (NGSO). This included applications from two Canadian companies, Kepler Communications and Telesat. The total number of planned NGSO satellites in applications filled since June of this year, is …

In today’s Short Cuts: The final story in our series from the Canadian Space Policy Symposium is available, SEDS Canada offers an op-ed on the space programs budget and moves forward with their Young Space Entrepreneurs Competition, Kepler Communications makes a choice on a company to build their prototype satellites, the Canadian Space Agency funds a new study using virtual reality to help astronauts and …

On Tuesday, November 8th some 90 people gathered at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa for the 1st Canadian Space Policy Summit organized by the Canadian Space Commerce Association. Representatives from industry, academia, not-for-profits and government discussed a variety of policy issues with a planned outcome of putting together a recommendations report to be disseminated, and in particular, provided to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada …

In today's Short Cuts: Minister Bains, in remarks at the 2016 Canadian Aerospace Summit last week, said that a new space strategy will be launched next June with the new Space Advisory Board supporting the development of long term priorities for Canada's space program. In part two of our series on the Canadian Space Policy Symposium we hear about the need for a balanced space program. The Fourth Canadian Satellite Design Challenge begins, iREx grants, Aerospace cluster and more.