Business

Recently at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium both Planet and KSAT threatened to pull ground station assets out of Canada by June 1 if progress hadn’t been made in approving their licenses. Then news came from New North Networks, the company which manages the ground station infrastructure in Inuvik, that they had heard from Global Affairs Canada and that an approval of sorts had been received. …

At the recent Canadian SmallSat Symposium Dr. Michael K. Simpson was the opening keynote speaker. As Executive Director of the Secure World Foundation Michael works toward the foundations vision of “the secure, sustainable and peaceful uses of outer space contributing to global stability and benefits on Earth.”

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded a $1.534 million to COM DEV (Honeywell Canada) for a Focal Plane Array for Coastal & Inland Water Color Hyperspectral Imager as part of the Space Technology Development Program.

Surprising most people, the government unveiled $21.5 billion in new spending, more than anticipated for Budget 2018. This includes and significantly, $3.2 billion for science funding and a total of $6.4 billion for what the chapter in the budget calls Progress.

At 15-kilograms, Claire, the size of a microwave oven, zips around the planet at 7-kilometres a second. When flying above the Alberta oil sands, her sensors zero in on a tailing pond and record carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Claire is a demonstration microsatellite operated by GHGSat, the first commercial company to offer greenhouse gas monitoring services using satellite technology.

Tomorrow Finance Minister Bill Morneau will deliver the Liberal Party’s third budget since coming to power in October 2015. The space community awaits anxiously to see if this is the year a Canadian government steps up and supports the space program to a greater extent than it has.

The last day of the Canadian SmallSat Symposium saw something unusual happen. Typically at conferences the last couple of sessions are poorly attended as many attendees are already headed home. That was the case for the SmallSat Symposium except for a core group of rocket professionals and enthusiasts.

Planet took the opportunity while presenting at the Canadian SmallSat Symposium to deliver a very public ultimatum to Global Affairs Canada. Either there is measurable progress on licensing of their ground stations in Inuvik by June 1, or they will dismantle them and leave Canada. And they weren’t the only company to threaten this action.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded a total of $2M for two priority technology development contracts along with a contract for a socioeconomic benefit study.

A new government initiative modeled after the Small Business Innovation Research program in the U.S. promotes innovative growth in the small businesses sector.