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Canadian Space Agency president Sylvain Laporte was in Washington yesterday to speak at the Space Transportation Association and meet NASA officials. During his luncheon talk he stated Canada is considering accelerating its schedule in contributing to NASA’s lunar gateway.

NASA is looking at how it can further commercialize its activities. To that end, in August of 2018 it created the Regulatory and Policy Issues Committee as part of its Advisory Council.

President Trump has decided that NASA should send American astronauts to land on the moon within five years. It is a risky political decision that could negatively affect the American space program.

Yesterday Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh announced that it had been contracted by Toronto area company Canadensys to deliver payloads to the surface of the moon.

If you’re an individual or organization who has an idea for a mission, technology or instrument for the moon, now is the time to make it known. That in part, is the message the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is sending out in its latest call for ideas.

The RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) satellites were packed up and transported from Montreal to Palo Alto, California in preparation for their launch. They travelled the 4,800 km journey by way of a custom modified trailer owned by International Machine Transport (IMT), specialists in transporting these kinds of cargo.

This week NASA released its budget amendment to account for the Trump administration’s desire to accelerate the country’s plan to land humans on the moon in 2024 instead of 2028. The new plan has created problems for NASA’s international partners who are scrambling to see what it means for them. Canada is no exception.

Maxar Technologies announced last Friday that MDA, its Canadian division, had won a contract from the Government to provide 10 flight-ready Search and Rescue/Global Positioning System (SAR/GPS) repeaters.

NASA revealed in teleconference with media last night that it had formally named its return to the moon program, Artemis. In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. More importantly for the program, NASA sent Congress its budget amendment request for the fiscal year 2020.

SpaceX is scheduled to launch 60 Starlink demonstration satellites on a Falcon 9 this Wednesday without using a traditional dispenser.