October 2012 Archives

Four months after announcing it's intention to acquire Space Systems/Loral Inc., MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd (MDA) has cleared the one remaining major hurdle as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has completed its review and green-lighted the deal.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has announced that it has been selected as a key participant to support the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Phoenix Program.

Twenty-five engineers and scientists who contributed to the launch of the first Canadian satellite Alouette 1 were honoured at a special Gala Dinner in Ottawa on September 29 on the 50th anniversary of the satellite's launch.

With one defence satellite ready to fly, the government's attention will soon turn to others. That was the message Defence Minister Peter MacKay delivered to media representatives Thursday at a press conference for the official "send-off" of the Sapphire satellite.

Now that the Sapphire satellite finally has a firm launch date on an Indian rocket on December 12th, the government has seen fit to call a media briefing at the David Florida Laboratory (DFL) to talk about the satellite and it's mission for the benefit of the public.

This years Canadian Space Summit is being hosted by the University of Western Ontario's Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX) and features a notable group of speakers, both Canadian and international.

This past week Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean signalled that the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) will proceed to the next phase, the build phase, and that contracts are forthcoming.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell gave the Helen Sawyer Hogg Lecture at the RASC General Assembly on June 30, 2012, entitled "Will the world end in 2012? The astronomical evidence". Burnell is a British astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars with her then thesis supervisor Antony Hewish.

The winner of Canada's first Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC) is the University of Concordia in Montreal, Quebec.

Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield is at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany to train on a Columbus module mock-up. Hadfield will be a part of Expedition 34/35, a long-duration mission on board the International Space Station that launches in December 2012.

After years of delays, two important government satellites, NEOSSat and Sapphire along with two university built nanosatellites are now set to launch on India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C20 on Wednesday, December 12 from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center.

The Canadian Space Agency has released this video to commemorate Canada's 50 years in space and shows a timeline of milestones starting with the launch of Canada's first satellite in 1962, Alouette 1.

Cambridge University Press has released a new book, The International Atlas of Mars Exploration - The First Five Decades: 1953 to 2003, by Western University cartographer Philip J. Stooke. It is the second exploration atlas Stooke has created having previously released the popular International Atlas of Lunar Exploration.