Business

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has released a Request for Information (RFI) tender aimed at companies who are interested in supporting the Canadian CubeSat Project (CCP).

Continuing with our Summer Reading Series of articles or interviews that still have some relevance today, we present Canada’s Fledging Rover Program Is Facing A Rocky Future which outlined the state of rover development in Canada in the fall of 2011. The story was written by Elizabeth Howell and originally published in Space Quarterly Magazine in December 2011. Six years later many of the same players are still …

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.

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.

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.

When the Liberal government announced the Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI) with up to $950 million in funds available through 2022, the space community immediately took notice and began scouring the program guide for details. From the get go, one of the biggest challenges would be the meeting the matching fund requirement of the $125-$250 million for each supercluster.

MDA, which had announced in early May the creation of Space Infrastructure Services (SIS) to handle its nascent satellite servicing business, today announced that Finance Technology Leverage LLC would take a majority stake in SIS and that global satellite communications company SES would be its first customer.

My guest for episode 3 is Jessica West who is the Project Manager for the annual Space Security Index published by Project Ploughshares.