Recently in Budget 2010 Category

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."