Tag Archives: MDA

NASA appears to have been spared a major cut to its budget according to the NASA 2018 Fiscal Year (FY) Budget Blueprint. The Trump Administration’s FY2018 budget blueprint would see less than a 1% cut to NASA’s budget and is proposing it be set at $19.1 billion. 

In this weeks Short Cuts we talk about another blockbuster deal by MDA in the acquisition of DigitalGlobe, Deep Space Industries revenue revealed, GHGSat confirms it will acquire two more satellites, the Canadian Space Agency wants your input on technology development and more.

It turns out the acquisition of Space Systems Loral (SSL) in 2012 was just the opening act in MDA’s U.S. strategy. Today the company announced that it was acquiring DigitalGlobe for $3.1 billion (US$2.4 billion) in shares and cash. The deal includes taking on DigitalGlobe’s $1.6 billion (US$1.2 billion) in net debt. Both companies reported their 2016 revenue today, which when combined, is just over $3 …

According to the Wall Street Journal, MDA is in advanced talks to acquire DigitalGlobe. If a deal does emerge, it would be a significant acquisition. As reported by the Journal’s Dana Mattioli, “terms of the potential deal couldn’t be learned, but given DigitalGlobe’s market value of $1.8 billion Friday afternoon and a typical takeover premium, it could be worth between $2 billion and $3 billion. …

The days of on-orbit servicing, or satellite servicing, living in obscurity are over. On February 7, Orbital ATK, Inc. and their subsidiary Space Logistics LLC, filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia to stop the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from awarding Space Systems Loral (SSL), a subsidiary of Canada’s MDA, a contract to to develop satellite servicing of spacecraft in geostationary orbit …

MDA’s U.S. subsidiary, Space Systems Loral (SSL), today entered into an agreement with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop satellite servicing of spacecraft in geostationary orbit (GEO) for the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program.

SEDS Canada, the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), have selected four university applications to participate in the Canadian Reduced Gravity Experiment Design Challenge (CAN-RGX) competition. It is the inaugural year for the competition which received 21 applications from universities across the country, a sure sign that SEDS Canada’s goal of growing its membership is working.

In December we wrote a story about MDA’s subsidiary Space Systems Loral (SSL) in the U.S. winning a long sought after satellite servicing contract with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Yesterday, the NASA Future In-Space Operations weekly telecon provided an update on the evolution of NASA Goddard’s satellite servicing efforts including the Restore-L Mission which will see SSL build the spacecraft bus.

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.

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.