SpaceQ Space news and analysis.
The worldwide commercial space market heats up as Iridium Satellite Communications caps a two billion dollar turnaround with a $492 million USD launch contract to Elon Musk and his Space-X cowboys. Meanwhile, back in Canada our federal government finally ponies up another $26.4 million CDN to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) to continue work on phase “C” of the RADARSAT Constellation mission and COMDEV International …
Read More »This Week in Space for Canada
Elon Musk has his fully functioning Falcon 9 rocket. South Korea has their Space Launch Vehicle-1 (NARO-1) on the pad at the Naro Space Center, the Indians are busy perfecting their cryogenic liquid fueled rocket and even the English are beginning to wonder why the Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise is scheduled to take off and land “only in America, you say” as Canadian space focused …
Read More »Astronaut Chris Hadfield Interviewed on his NEEMO Experience
From May 10 to 23, 2010 astronaut Chris Hadfield was the commander of the NEEMO 14 mission. NEEMO is NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations project. In this interview Hadfield discusses the mission aboard the Aquarius habitat, his responsibilites as commander, the challenges of living in an extreme environment, offers insights on how this mission provides valuable insight on space exploration, and descibes his own career …
Read More »SpaceX Falcon 9 Makes it to Orbit on First Attempt
Earlier in the day it seemed like SpaceX would have to wait another day to launch. First there were boats in the range and the safety officers would not let them launch until they had cleared, then came the launch abort with 2 seconds to go before launch. But SpaceX tried again, and at 2:45 eastern the Falcon 9 soared to lofty heights on its …
Read More »This Week in Space for Canada
Raising money for mining ventures is something that Canadians do very, very well indeed and since the huge media event this week is about the big BP oil spill off the gulf coast, this week in space for Canada will focus on leveraging our acknowledged financial expertise to move some money out of terrestrial resource gathering and into our cash starved space activities.
Read More »Canadian Veteran Astronaut Chris Hadfield Slotted as Expedition 35 Commander
Veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield has been apparently slotted in as the International Space Station Expedition 35 Commander according to sources. This is something of a surprise as Canada was not expected to have another long duration stay until 2015. Hadfield becomes the first Canadian to be selected as an Expedition Commander.
Read More »Space Shuttle Atlantis Lands Safely in Florida
Space shuttle Atlantis and six astronauts ended a 12-day journey of more than 4.8 million miles with an 8:48 a.m. EDT landing Wednesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Read More »Canadian Robotic Technology to Install Mini Research Module-1 on STS-132 Mission
Watch how the Shuttle’s Canadarm and Canadarm2 will work together on Flight Day 5 to install the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1), which will mark the first time the Station’s robotic arm installs a Russian module on the International Space Station.
Read More »STS-132 Space Shuttle Atlantis Picture Perfect Final Launch
NASA’s Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center right on time at 2:20 p.m. EDT, rising into a picture-perfect Florida sky and capping a relatively problem-free countdown.
Read More »Final Flight of Atlantis has Large Canadian Element
While there has been a great emphasis on the fact that currently STS-132 will be the final flight of the space shuttle Atlantis, there is another almost forgotten aspect of this mission – the Canadian aspect. This mission will be utilizing many Canadian elements.
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