The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has released, through the public tendering service MERX, a request for proposals (RFP) to plan and execute Analogue Missions. Analogue Missions are simulations of space mission operations that take place at analogue sites on Earth; these can also be thought of as Integrated field tests. Sites that are presently used for analogue missions include Devon Island in Nunavut, Pavilion Lake …

The European Space Agency launched a pair of satellites early Sunday evening on a Russian Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia that feature technology demonstrations from three Canadian Companies. The two satellites launched were the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy (Proba-2). The Proba-2 satellite is part of ESA’s inorbit technology demonstration programme which are missions dedicated …

The European Space Agency will be launching a pair of satellites early Sunday evening at 8:50 p.m. EST on a Russian Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia that feature technology demonstrations from three Canadian Companies.

Canada is mentioned five times in the US Human Spaceflight Plans Committee Report. Three are general references to Canada’s participation in the space station Freedom and the International Space Station. The other mentions are more significant.

The Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee has released it’s long awaited report (PDF) and it states that the U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory. However if NASA had a less-constrained budget with increasing annual expenditures by approximately $3 billion in real purchasing power they could sustain a viable exploration program.

NASA’s Human Space Flight Review Committee chaired by Norman Augustine will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT today to discuss the committee’s final report which is being released today. The highly anticipated report will have a significant affect on future US manned space flight and consequently affects Canada’s space program.

The US space program is scheduled to fly its last Space Shuttle mission late next year meaning Canada’s astronauts will have to ride a Russian Soyuz rocket if they are to visit the International Space Station (ISS). The Russians have been charging space tourists $35 million US of late and will be charging the US space program $51 million US per flight starting in 2016 …

Guy Lalibert the the founder of Cirque du Soleil landed in the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft on the steppes of Kazakhstan earlier today after completing his 11 day Poetic Social Mission. Returning with Lalibert were International Space Station Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt who have just completed a six-month stay.

On October 5, 1984 astronaut Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space as he was aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-41G. A quarter of a century later another 8 Canadians have flown into space for a total of 16 flights including the current mission by space participant Guy Lalibert. Canada’s newest astronauts Jeremy Hansen and David St-Jacques are undergoing training and have yet …