Tag Archives: RADARSAT Constellation Mission

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) released its 2019-20 Departmental Plan (DP) today which outlines spending of $329M, about $18M more than was forecasted last year but continues an expected downward trend. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, policy, technology and more. Support independent journalism. SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Maritime Launch Services submitted its environmental Focus Report to Nova Scotia Environment on March 11 and yesterday it was posted online.

In the past week the Liberal government has admittedly stepped up and committed Canada to a new space strategy, and backed it up with over $2 billion in new funding. Is it really as big a commitment as it seems? Yes and no, the explanation is as follows.

Sitting in a side hangar of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM) is a special preservation project: an airplane that is the direct ancestor of the forthcoming RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) that will launch in the coming months, upgrading RADARSAT-2’s capability with a trio of satellites.

For the first time since its inception, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) spent almost exactly what it planned to in its fiscal year 2017-18 budget according to the recently released Departmental Results Report. The CSA planned spending for the fiscal year 2017 was $353,809,911 and the agency spent $353,457,987, a difference of -$351,924. Not since fiscal year 2002 have they come this close to balancing their budget …

Canada’s only operational radar satellite, RADARSAT-2, has lost the use of its gyroscope and will now rely on the spacecraft’s three other types of sensors for attitude reference. And in just released news, Maxar announced today that the WorldView-4 satellite control moment gyros have failed and they don’t expect the spacecraft to recover.

When we look back at some of what was expected in 2018 with respect to significant Canadian space events, it’s clear they all delivered, just not always with the expected results.

It would seem getting the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) launched is an exercise in patience as the hoped for mid-February launch is “likely” delayed again.

The Department of National Defence (DND) has awarded $6.7M in contracts to eight companies for the All Domain Situational Awareness (ADSA) S&T Program.

While there are several space conferences of note each year in Canada, there is only one annual event at present that covers a wide range of issues in the civil, commercial and military sectors. That conference is the Canadian Space Summit.