Business

There’s something about Ottawa and the Canadian Space Summit. Each year the Canadian Space Society holds their annual summit in a different city.  However, as the Summit returns to Ottawa this year, there’s an expectation that the conference will deliver more, and it usually does.

This week on the SpaceQ podcast I spoke with Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat. Telesat is a leading global satellite operator based in Ottawa. Dan’s been the Chief Executive at Telesat since 2006. Before working at Telesat he had been CEO at SES New Skies. And for those with long memories, Dan was also Associate General Counsel and Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs …

The stars have once again aligned for Canada’s leading space firm. Earlier this month, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., now known simply as MDA, a Canadian global communications and information enterprise providing technology solutions to commercial and government organizations worldwide, completed its $2.4 billion purchase of DigitalGlobe, an American-based global provider of high resolution Earth imagery and geospatial information.

On October 2nd MDA’s acquisition of DigitialGlobe closed. The new company formed from this acquisition will be called Maxar Technologies and will have 6,500 employees with $3B in 2016 revenues. Contrast that to January 2008 when MDA thought it had sold its space business to then Alliant Techsystems (ATK), now Orbital ATK, and we’re planning on leaving the space market. Then, as in now, context …

The president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) spoke to a younger conference audience than he usually does today, as the Montreal Space Symposium was conceived and organized by students.

My guest this week is none other than my business partner Keith Cowing. Keith and I co-founded SpaceRef 18 years ago.

This Thursday the first of three spacewalks will take place to replace one of the hands, know as Latching End Effectors (LEE) on the station’s Canadarm2.

In his opening statement at the Subcommittee on Space Hearing on Private Sector Lunar Exploration, Brian Babin (R-Texas), Chair of the Subcommittee said “will space be the next sector to lead economic growth?” His answer, ” I don’t know.” It’s an important question and his answer was right.

The Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA) will hold in person and online webinar on how the governments proposed tax reforms will impact businesses, in particular those in the space sector.

In recent weeks three key employees from Ontario Drive and Gear (ODG) left the companies space robotic division and moved over to Canadensys Aerospace. Now we know why. Canadensys today announced that it was opening up a new advanced manufacturing facility in the Waterloo region.