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In the last week and half there’s been an ongoing discussion as to whether Canada needs and should develop an indigenous orbital rocket launch capability. That’s the topic of this weeks podcast.

In the last 17 years the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has left $802 million in planned spending unspent. In the last three years the CSA has underspent its budget by $201 million. In 2010 the Conservative government began the process of decreasing the CSA's base budget from $300 million to $260 million. The Liberal government has not restored the CSA's annual base budget funding cut. Add these points …

All eyes were glued on the SpaceX Falcon Heavy’s successful launch this past Tuesday. Not only because it demonstrated SpaceX’s new and astonishing space launch capability, but because of the idiosyncratic, even baffling cargo: one of Elon Musk’s own Tesla Roadsters, complete with “Starman”, its spacesuit-wearing dummy passenger.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch this week has ignited a debate within Canada as to whether we need our own launch capability. The government policy currently is that we don’t need the capability. Is it time to revisit or modify that policy to take into account commercial efforts?

With the launch this week of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy and the discussion in the media about Canada’s lack of launch capability, we thought we would publish a couple of articles from the Space Quarterly print magazine archives that have never been published online. This second article was published in September 2012 and is written by journalist Elizabeth Howell.

With the launch this week of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy and the discussion in the media about Canada’s lack of launch capability, we thought we would publish a couple of articles from the Space Quarterly print magazine archives that have never been published online. The first was published in June 2012 and is written by Canadian journalist and historian Chris Gainor.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded a total of $1.5 million for two projects related to future human exploration in the vicinity of the moon and Mars.

Today SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy on its first launch attempt, an event which could arguably be called historic. Not just for the successful launch, but also because of the successful landing of the two side boosters.

My guest this week on the SpaceQ podcast is Chris Gebhardt, Assistant Managing Editor of NASASpaceflight.com. Chris and I talked about SpaceX, specifically the upcoming maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

The International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) has released the third iteration of its Global Exploration Roadmap with some important changes including the moon as an important step and the increased role of the private sector.