Tag Archives: RADARSAT Constellation Mission

This fall Canada’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission, a trio of synthetic aperture radar satellites, will launch 15 years after its conception. In that time there have been government imposed delays and a budget that has grown to over $1 billion. Eric Choi wrote the following article for Space Quarterly Magazine which was published in the March 2013 Canadian edition. It is still relevant today.

The Department of National Defence budget for 2018-19 has been set at $20,377,579,955, slightly lower than the previous year.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) today published its departmental plan for the current budget year 2018-19, and while it is slightly higher at $349 million than last years planned spending for this year, it is a continuation of a downward budgetary spiral.

There’s a reason Budget 2018 didn’t include any significant funding or major new programs the space community wanted. The government says “more work needs to be done” on developing a long-term strategy. 

While exactEarth’s chief executive remains coy about how the “strategic alternative” search is going, he says the Earth observation company picked its timing carefully to look at a possible sale, merger or other activity to maximize shareholder value.

The Space Advisory Board has sent an email to stakeholders expressing their disappointed with Budget 2018 but says they will continue to “emphasize” the “need for urgent action to reverse the decline in Canada’s space capability” as they engage “with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and his officials.”

Tomorrow Finance Minister Bill Morneau will deliver the Liberal Party’s third budget since coming to power in October 2015. The space community awaits anxiously to see if this is the year a Canadian government steps up and supports the space program to a greater extent than it has.

In the last 17 years the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has left $802 million in planned spending unspent. In the last three years the CSA has underspent its budget by $201 million. In 2010 the Conservative government began the process of decreasing the CSA's base budget from $300 million to $260 million. The Liberal government has not restored the CSA's annual base budget funding cut. Add these points …

What if you could put a Synthetic Aperture Radar on small satellite? Would this disrupt the existing market? That’s exactly what Finnish company ICEYE has done and is trying to do. 

The Canadian Space Commerce Association has released its technical speaker list for the Canadian SmallSat Symposium (#CDNSmallSat2018) being held in Toronto between February 13-15, 2018.