News

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.

By: Rob Thacker, Saint Mary’s University and Matt Dobbs, McGill University. Canada was among the early leaders in the space race, becoming the 3rd nation to have a satellite in orbit with the launch of the Alouette mission in 1962, aboard a US launch vehicle. For over 50 years our federal strategy has been to achieve our space goals through tight partnerships with other nations.

The Canadian SmallSat Symposium held in Toronto, February 13-15, attracted national and international individuals, ranging from small start-ups, law firms, private commercial space corporates, to the government, all involved in the Canadian small satellite and space sector.

Yesterdays spacewalk successfully completed a choreographed series of movements over three spacewalks since last fall to swap MDA built Latching End Effector’s (LEE) from the Canadarm2 to its Mobile Base System and stow one for a return to Earth.

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 …

Canadian researchers have tested a series of miniaturized, low-cost life detection instruments in the hope that similar technology will be used to find extant life within our solar system.

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.