Business

It’s been almost a year since the government unveiled its latest iteration of a Space Advisory Board and immediately its members were thrown into the lions den.

It’s been rough start to the year for UrtheCast as it tries to move forward with its plan to build its UrtheDaily Constellation. A confluence of events though has the company on the edge of a precipice.

Inspired by the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge in 2010, a group of students formed what would become the AlbertaSat group. They would eventually design, build and see launched, the first satellite from Alberta. It’s a story and experience worth discussing.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has contracted NanoRacks as the launch services provider for the Canadian CubeSat Project.

The satellite manufacturing market for larger geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites has been lagging these past few years, so the announcement of two GEO contracts by SSL, a Maxar subsidiary, is welcome news for the company.

The Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) has released the ASTRO 2018 Preliminary Technical Program.

Space mining is an idea that used to be just a concept. Now companies, small and large, are working towards the goal of setting up mining operations on the moon and asteroids.

Maxar recently held its 2018 investor days. The purpose? Sell institutional investors on why the company now known as Maxar Technologies, formed from MDA, SSL, Digitalglobe and Radiant, is a company going places.  The message, institutional investors should have a larger Maxar position in their portfolios and they should market the company to their clients.  

There’s a reason Budget 2018 didn’t include any significant funding or major new programs the space community wanted. The government says “more work needs to be done” on developing a long-term strategy. 

Deep Space Industries is a five year old privately held company spacecraft technology with a long term plan of mining asteroids that has adapted its business for the long game.