News

Yesterday at the Université Laval the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, announced an investment of $328.5 million to 17 national research facilities at 12 universities across the country as part of the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) Major Science Initiative (MSI) fund including $30 million in funding for two space related research programs.

Canada is hosting two European Space Agency (ESA) events this March as part of the 2017 ESA Earth Explorer science meetings. They include the Fourth Swarm Science Meeting & Geodetic Missions Workshop and the North American Cryosat Science Meeting. For qualified Canadian university students, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is offering grants up to $4000 to attend.

Just before the holidays MDA received a contract from the Canadian Space Agency for which no press release was issued, though it was listed on the government’s  provide Public Works Buy and Sell procurement website.

In today’s Short Cuts: It was pretty quiet during the holidays but there were a couple of noteworthy items including the Governor General of Canada awarding the Order of Canada to 100 people including six from the space community, the Canadian Space Agency issuing a new tender notice for the MEOSAR Ground Segment Phase 2 and awarding two contracts, China releasing it’s next 5 year …

The Governor General of Canada office announced today 100 new appointments to the Order of Canada. The list includes 3 Companions (C.C.), 22 Officers (O.C.) and 75 Members (C.M.). Of those, six work or have worked in space related fields. 

exactEarth announced today it had signed a contract with Antrix Corporation of India to provide Automatic Identification System (AIS) data services to the Indian Navy. The three year deal contract is valued at USD $1.75 million.

Swiss media began reporting last week that Swiss Space Systems (S3), the company with aspirations of becoming a leader in suborbital launches of small satellites and zero-g flights for passengers and scientists, was declared bankrupt by a Swiss court. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the company which had conducted some initial work in North Bay, and was considering the city as potential launching …

There were plenty of stories to choose from in selecting what were the Top Ten stories on SpaceRef Canada this past year. Included in the list is a story we just published on the Canada – European Union free trade deal which senior space industry people are concerned about.

In today’s Short Cuts: Industry sources tell SpaceRef Canada they have serious concerns over the free trade deal with the European Union. GHGSat, which hopes to launch two new satellites in the short term, passes a milestone with its Claire satellite. The National Research Council announces an Enhanced Virtual Observatory for the scientific community and more. If you would like to submit a Short Cut, …

Free trade agreements are by their very nature a means of increasing trade between two or more countries. In the case of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the deal Prime Minister Trudeau signed in Brussels on October 30th could have a significant negative effect on Canada’s domestic space industry. Industry sources SpaceRef Canada spoke to are very concerned, with one saying …