Heading into the first demo flight of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program SpaceX and NASA were both quick to remind people that this was a test program doing something SpaceX had never done before. From the look of today’s launch it seems they needed have worried so much. The first flight of Falcon 9 carrying the Dragon spacecraft to orbit appears to have …

A safe return for the Expedition 25 crew, a status report on the STS-133 mission, enter the Dragon; a newly-licensed reusable spacecraft, space talks with the ISS crew, wind tunnel testing, and it’s all Good when an astronaut goes home sweet home.

NASA funded researchers conducting tests in Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth that are able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. This new find in the field known as Astrobiology has changed our fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.

NASA has just completed its first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes including the Great Lakes and have determined Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years as a result of climate change.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced today that is has been accepted as a full member of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). The committee is a forum for the coordination of activities related to the issues of man-made and natural debris in space.

Date: July 17-22, 2011 Location: St. John’s, Newfoundland Web Site: http://www.agu.org/meetings/chapman/2011/ecall/ About: Despite some 50 years of space research, fundamental questions remain concerning the physics of Earth’s radiation belts and inner magnetosphere. Our ability to protect spacecraft systems from the hazardous space environment depends on our knowledge of geospace. In the last decade there has been a resurgence in radiation belt research in parallel with …

Date: July 11 -15, 2011 Location: Saint-Michel-des-Saints, QC J0K 3B0 Web Site: http://craq-astro.ca/moffat/ About: We are organizing a meeting to celebrate four decades of contributions of Professor Anthony F.J. Moffat to massive-star research. Since his first papers on open clusters in the early 70’s, Tony’s research interests have expanded in many directions to cover a multitude of aspects of massive stars. The meeting will encompass …

Date: June 19 -22, 2011 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Web Site: http://www.ptmss.com/ About: The purpose for this conference is to promote a closer relationship between the space and mining sectors. The intent is to allow mining experts to network with space scientists and engineers, to share knowledge, and to foster collaboration. The focus of the conference will be solid planet sciences. Topics will be limited to …

Date: May 30 – June 2, 2011 Location: University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario Web Site: http://www.casca.ca/annual_meetings.php About: CASCA Annual Meetings are open to all interested persons (whether belonging to the Society or not) who register in attendance. Presentation of scientific papers is restricted to members or applicants for membership or temporary residents of Canada who are sponsored by a present member or other speakers …

Date: January 15-17, 2011 Location: Victoria, BC Web Site: http://almatelescope.ca/Spectroscopy2011/ About: The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) and the Center for Chemistry of the Universe (CCU) will jointly host, with the assistance of the National Research Council of Canada, a major science conference entitled ALMA: Extending the Limits of Astrophysical Spectroscopy in Victoria, British Columbia, 15-17 January 2011. The venue is the Laurel Point …