Recently in Canadian Space Agency Watch Category

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will see it's budget peak this year at an all time high of $424.6 million then drop 34% over the following two years according to estimates released yesterday in their annual Report on Plans and Priorities. At the same the agency has completed an overhaul and restructuring of their Program Activity Architecture which in effect begins the execution of the agency's next Long Term Space Plan.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) issued a tender through the MERX system this morning looking for proposals to overhaul it's online presence, to branch out into interactive games and to embrace social media.

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.

The federal government on March 25th released the 2010-2011 Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Report on Plans and Priorities. The report indicates that in anticipation of Cabinet and Treasury Board approval of the Long Term Space Plan (LTSP), a reorganization is underway. The much anticipated 10 year LTSP would begin to be implemented this year as soon as the government approves the plan.

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.

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).

In December 2008 members of the Canadian space community gathered in Montreal for the 6th Canadian Space Exploration Workshop (CSEW6) sponsored and hosted by the Canadian Space Agency. The report, dated May 30, 2009, was released to the public today.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) today issued a Request for Information (RFI) to Canadian organizations involved in space technology development and/or research in Canada to provide comments on technical information stemming from the European Space Agency's (ESA) 1st Semester 2010 Technology Harmonization process led by ESA's Technology Harmonization Advisory Group (THAG), where the CSA represents the Canadian delegation.