Opinion

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 Liberals rightly criticized the Conservatives for not being transparent when they were the government. Now that the Liberals are in power, they plan on following through with their promise to update the Access to Information Act. The problem? Bill C-58 will result in a less transparent government in which the government decides what the public should know.

Between April 24-28 of this year China and Canada met in Ottawa for the second exploratory discussions on a possible free trade agreement. If Canada moves forward with negotiating a free trade agreement it must ensure that Canada’s domestic space sector is adequately protected, unlike the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) agreement with the European Union.

They blew it. Plain and simple. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) press conference yesterday was billed by the CSA as a funding announcement and the event included two senior cabinet ministers. So you would think the announcement would be more substantive. Unfortunately the hype didn’t meet expectations.  

Today, Canada’s new Space Advisory Board will meet for the first time and a government dedicated to being open and transparent should follow NASA’s example, and make most Board meetings open to the public, either in person or by teleconference.

The year 2017 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the space age and no doubt the major spacefaring countries of the world will mark this occasion, but it is unlikely that Canada will be among them. For some strange reason, despite its direct involvement in the exploration and exploitation of outer space since the very dawn of the space age, Ottawa seems to have forgotten how …

Recently, there has been noteworthy news related to small satellites. First and significantly, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released details of new applications from companies wanting to deploy constellations of small satellites, most in non-geostationary orbits (NGSO). This included applications from two Canadian companies, Kepler Communications and Telesat. The total number of planned NGSO satellites in applications filled since June of this year, is …

I’m not sure why SpaceNews published the opinion piece After Orlando, NASA-UAE deal gives reason to ponder space partnerships of Danny Bednar, a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at Western University, the day after the Orlando terror attack. I can only surmise it was to pull a Buzzfeed and post something controversial to attract readers. It worked.

The Federal Budget brought a mild surprise and welcome news to the space community in that the government provided a specific funding dollar amount to sustain Canada’s contribution to the International Space Station (ISS) through 2024. The previous government had committed Canada to participating in the ISS through 2024, but had yet to allocate funds to make it happen.

Since the beginning, man has yearned to venture into the cosmos, which is a difficult achievement without access to space. Such is the attitude and position of Canada within the global space industry.