Results tagged “Canadian Space Agency”

The Conservative Government of Stephen Harper, which governs as if it had a majority because of weak opposition, is notorious for controlling information disseminated to the public. This extends to every public agency including the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), much to its detriment.

Anyone reading the widely circulated Canadian Press (CP) story last week titled "Canadian Space Agency becomes third customer of commercial U.S. rocket firm" can be forgiven if thinking this was new news. In fact it wasn't. The Canadian Space Agency through it's contractor MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) had secured a launch for the CASSIOPE satellite almost 5 years ago.

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.

On May 11th the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology will meet a delegation of astronauts led by former astronaut and current Canadian Space Agency (CSA) president Steve MacLean.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) CryoSat-2 earth observation satellite was successfully launched yesterday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian Dnepr rocket. As a cooperating member of ESA, the Canadian Space Agency is contributing to ESA's Earth Observation Envelope Programme and therefore is participating in the mission.

Steve MacLean, President of the Canadian Space Agency, will be at the University of Western Ontario on Wednesday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Conron Hall (University College 224) to present his lecture "It is Rocket Science," which addresses the idea that we have only begun to explore the potential of space, and the research done today sets a foundation for future generations to build on.

Nerenberg Lecture with Dr. Steve MacLean
Date: Wednesday, March 31 at 7:30
Venue: Conron Hall (University College 224)

Readers familiar with our ongoing Canadian Space Agency Watch series know that space policy is an issue we tend to focus on. In particular the long anticipated but elusive Long-Term Space Plan (LTSP) the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has been working in since the fall of 2008. So it came as a bit of a surprise when we found out that not only had the LTSP not been submitted to the Minister of Industry and Cabinet for consideration, but that it was not yet finished.

The Canadian Space Agency got the green light to go ahead with the RADARSAT Constellation Mission as reported earlier. The governments Economic Action Plan provided the Canadian Space Agency with $110 million over three years in last years budget. Of that, it was reported that $10 million had been committed while another $36 million will be committed this year. The $36 million for this year is lower than the original $60 million allocated last year.

Today's budget from the government provides the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) with $397 million of new money to help fund the RADARSAT Constellation Mission over 5 years. Along with $100 million that the CSA already has, the CSA will have a total of $497 million for the project. The bulk of the spending will happen after 2011-2012. This project which had already been in the research stage is a continuation of the Earth Observation thrust and is designed to help protect Canadian sovereignty, in particular the arctic.

More to come as we dissect the budget.

The Conservatives Governments throne speech today, in advance of tomorrow's budget, only hinted at possible increased funding for Earth Observation for Arctic sovereignty. The text of the speech which dealt with space was rather vague as you can see.

"Canada has been a spacefaring nation for nearly 50 years. Our Government will extend support for advanced research, development and prototyping of new space-based technologies, especially in support of Arctic sovereignty."

On March 4th the federal government will release what is expected to be a frugal budget. This is in part is due to lower tax revenues. The December 2009 deficit was $3.1 billion with revenues down $19.4-billion and program expenses up $22 billion. With revenues down and the deficit climbing the government has signaled that there will be few new spending initiatives and that some cuts might be in the offing. While the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is not expected to see a significant change in its budget this coming year, it is possible that cuts are forthcoming in future budgets which were already scheduled to decline as the government reigns in spending.

The Ottawa Citizen article "Rocket Science" which appeared in yesterday's paper was over simplified and got even some of the basic facts wrong.

I do however agree with the message of the article that the Government, and in particular Minister of Industry Tony Clement, needs to be proactive and release a new Long Term Space Plan for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

University of British Columbia (UBC) astronomers led by UBC post-doctoral fellow Gaelen Marsden have released the most detailed images of deep space from 12 billion years ago using data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory. The results were recently presented at the first International Herschel Science Meeting in Madrid, Spain.

This week in Montreal the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Space Exploration Advisory Committee (SEAC) is holding one of its periodic meetings and you could have attended the open session except for the fact that no one knew about the meeting other than the CSA and SEAC members. Why is that?

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) announced today that they had secured a $46 million contract from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to develop next generation technologies and prototypes for future space exploration missions which could include Lunar and Martian orbital missions. As well, MDA will develop technologies for servicing spacecraft in Earth orbit. The contract also includes options for an additional $4 million of prototypes.

Students of the ISU have for the first time successfully conducted an experiment of their making on the International Space Station. Robert Thirsk, a CSA astronaut currently resident on the ISS, played an integral part in the experiment.