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          By  Chuck Black Earlier this month, as outlined in the July 5th, 2018 Space News post, " Canada’s LEO constellation fund draws interest from Telesat, MDA ," both Ottawa, ON based Telesat and Brampton ON based MDA Corporation (a subsidiary of Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies ) expressed interest in accessing funding from the Canadian government’s new $100Mln CDN   Strategic Innovation Fund  to finance low-Earth-orbit satellite systems. Now, it looks like both companies, in conjunction with Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer Thales Alenia Space , have decided to play nice instead of compete. The three have entered into a consortium to access the fund for a group project and are working together on Telesat's proposed  117-satellite low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation. Though not a defined manufacturing contract, the agreement, announced on July 30th, 2018, positions the three companies as the team which ...

           By  Brian Orlotti Within the next week, the US government will almost certainly vote into law a new Federal government policy requiring the  US Air Force  (USAF) to consider both expendable and reusable launch vehicles for military launch contracts. The move is a great milestone for the NewSpace industry and another triumph for Hawthorne, CA based SpaceX , the only company currently capable of building reusable, orbital launch rockets. SpaceX has spent many years lobbying to open up bidding for military space launches, a market traditionally dominated by Centennial, CO based  United Launch Alliance  (ULA). As outlined in the July 27th, 2018 Ars Technica post, " After 25 years, military told to move from “ expendable ” to “ reusable ” rockets ," the final version of the defense budget bill, known as the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (H.R, 5515), will not only require the USAF to co...

Image c/o IISC .          By Henry Stewart The Isle of Man based  International Institute of Space Commerce  (IISC), established in 2007 as a cooperative venture between the  International Space University  (ISU) and the  Government of the Isle of Man , has released a listing of the " IISC Top 35 Under 35 Class of 2018 " space industry movers and shakers. As outlined in the July 25th, 2018 IISC press release, " State of the Industry Special Edition; IISC 35 Under 35 Class of 2018 ," the good news is that three Canadian's are included with the list. The bad news is that only one of those Canadians still lists Canada as the place where they live and/or work. The IISC list of top 35 under 35 included the following Canadian's: Beth Downer , the founder of Reaching Space Science , a Netherlands based space communications company who also works as a space science communicator at Leiden University , the oldest university in the Netherlands. Acc...

          By  Chuck Black The 2016 State of the Canadian Space Sector , the latest in an annual compilation of Canada's space capabilities produced by the economic analysis and research team at the  Canadian Space Agency (CSA), is now online. Cover page c/o CSA . As outlined in the December 4th, 2017 post, " The Latest CDN Space Sector Report Notes 5 Year Slump (Except for BC) & Industry Dominates, Not Academia or Gov't ," the 2015 report noted a five year stagnation in space focused activities going back to 2010. The article noted that the domestic slump was in line with international markets during that time. But the 2016 report has noted a continuous improvement in the international market while the domestic market continues to shrink. It also noted a Canadian workforce which, while increasing, has still not rebounded to 2014 levels. As outlined in the latest document: In 2016, total revenues in the Canadian space sector came to $5.5B, represen...

          By  Chuck Black It's worth noting that, while this blog has tracked Canada's space industry since its inception in 2009, we're not the only useful source in this area. The why the Commercial Space blog tracks RSS news feeds from 50 other online sources related to the space industry and makes those feeds available to our readers. The most interesting stories are aggregated and end up in our Canadian Aerospace News , the More Commercial Space News and the Space Conference News aggregation feeds in the colorful, animated boxes at the top of the right hand column on the main page. But the raw feeds are also individually posted further down the column, for anyone who'd like to check them out.  They include Canadian ( Canada AI , Vanguard Magazine and SpaceQ), American ( Politico Space and Space.com ) and international feeds ( ESA Top News and SpaceWatch.Global ) from recognized news outlets, along with personals blogs ( Jan Woerner's blo...

           By  Brian Orlotti Montreal is poised to become the next Silicon Valley owing to its abundance of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, academics, collaborative culture, ready access to capital and social awareness. Even better, Toronto is close behind in those same areas. As outlined in the July 20th, 2018 AITrends post, " With its Academics, Culture of Collaboration, Access to Capital, Concern with Social Impact, Montreal Poised to be AI Startup Hotbed ," Montreal’s AI tech boom has its origins in the Canadian government’s commitment to funding AI research over the past 25 years. Canada has supported AI pioneers like Yoshua Bengio (University of Montreal and Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA)), Yann LeCun (VP and Chief AI Scientist, Facebook) and Geoff Hinton (who works out of the University of Toronto Vector Institute and serves as Google VP and Engineering Fellow) and is now reaping the benefits of this patronage. Th...

         By Henry Stewart Federal innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, along with most of the rest of the international aerospace community, is spending the week at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow , currently being held in  Farnborough , UK from July 16th - 22nd. As outlined in the July 19th, 2018 Government of Canada press release, " Government of Canada promotes global investment in our country's world-class aerospace industry ," Bains accompanied a Canadian delegation which included transport minister Marc Garneau, public services minister Carla Qualtrough, parliamentary secretary David Lametti and 420 representatives from more than 130 Canadian aerospace companies. According to the press release, " a number of Canadian-based companies announced sales or investments at 2018 Farnborough International Airshow including Bell Helicopter, Bombardier, the Bombardier/Airbus strategic partnership, CAE, CMC Esterline, Héroux-Devtek, MDA, Pratt ...

          By  Chuck Black The failure of the Federal government Space Advisory Board (SAB) to contribute to real change in the Canadian space industry has claimed another victim, the Toronto ON based Canadian Space Commerce Association (CSCA). CSCA website screenshot dated May 31st, 2018. Graphic c/o Wayback Machine . On Tuesday, July 16th, 2018 the entire CSCA website was replaced with single press release from CSCA president Michelle Mendes titled " CSCA Ceases Operations ." As outlined in her post: After significant consideration and exploring all options, it is with great sadness that the board of directors has decided to declare the CSCA insolvent and will be ceasing operations immediately.   It is important to note that this is not indicative of Canadian commercial space in general. Due to historical issues, pre-2016, which the new board and management worked very hard to rectify, it was difficult to raise funds and therefore made the business u...

          By  Chuck Black A remote area on the the northern coast of Scotland  between the coastal villages of Tongue and Durnesson is on track to become the UK’s first operational spaceport. The new UK spaceport may also launch a new UK funded and built microsat launcher when it becomes operational in the early 2020's. Unlike the controversial (and currently unfunded) proposal for a Canadian space port discussed most recently in the May 25th, 2018 post, " Maritime Launch Services Will Not Say When It Will Begin Building Proposed Canso NS Commercial Spaceport ," the Scotish proposal is being championed by local government through the Scottish Government's economic and community development agency, known as  Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which intends to build the launch site on Scotland's  A’Mhoine peninsula . As outlined in the July 16th, 2018 The Gaurdian post, " Rocket men: locals divided over plans for UK's first spaceport...

         By Henry Stewart Brampton, ON based MDA , the Canadian subsidiary of the Denver CO based  Maxar Technologies , a company once known as Richmond BC based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, has acquired Kanata ON based Neptec Design Group , in a deal valued at $42Mln CDN. As outlined in the July 16th, 2018 Maxar Technologies press release, " Maxar Technologies' MDA Announces Acquisition of Neptec Design Group, a Leading Space Sensors Company in Canada and the United Kingdom ," $8Mln CDN will be paid out in cash, with the balance paid out in Maxar common shares. According to the press release: With Neptec, MDA will deliver end-to-end robotic systems and an expanded set of solutions, positioning the company to capture growth in US, Canadian and global space exploration markets and accelerate advancement into new and expanding space segments.   The transaction is accretive to Maxar's operating earnings per share beginning in 2019, solid...

         By Henry Stewart The Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC), in an effort to build on its successful campaign to increase Federal government science funding and in partnership with the Office of the Chief Science Advisor of Canada , has rolled out a pilot program offering scientists and engineers from various disciplines a chance to  "develop an understanding of the parliamentary process. " CSPC is looking for sponsors for its " Science Meets Parliment " program, primarily from academic institutions. To learn more, please check out the  Partnership Prospectus . Graphic c/o CSPC . It's a useful activity which members of Canada's space community, stung by the recent failure of the Federally mandated Space Advisory Board (SAB) to increase Federal funding for private and public sector space activities, would do well to emulate. As outlined in the July 9th, 2018 CSPC press release, " CSPC in Partnership with Chief Science Advisor Present...

          By  Chuck Black Readers of this blog have noted Halifax, NS based Aethera Technologies, which was recently awarded $1.5Mln CDN under the Canadian Space Agency 's (CSA)  Space Technology Development Program (STDP) to develop advanced high-power radio frequency power processing units (RF-PPUs) for Webster, TX based Ad Astra Rocket Company ’s variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMR) plasma engine. But Aethera shows indications of being a spin-off of another NS based company. Hackets Cove NS based  Nautel Ltd. , has worked with Ad Astra on similar projects in the past and both Aethera senior engineer Brian Walker and Aethera senior electronic technologist Matthew Skinner  were long-term Nautel employees before leaving to join Athera. Creating a spin-off to commercialize new technology would certainly make sense, given that Nautel is a forty year old firm with an existing global business to focus on. But some have menti...

         By Henry Stewart ArsTechnica has posted an interesting piece on the decline of the Russian space capabilities, using references from  Lenta.ru , a Moscow-based Russian language online newspaper. As outlined in the July 9th, 2018 ArsTechnica post, " Russian editor: Our space program is entering the 'Dark Ages' "  Lenta.ru author/editor Andrei Borisov has captured: ...the fading zeitgeist of the Russian space program in a lengthy article on the new leader of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin , and the changes he has proposed.   Dmitry Rogozin. Photo c/o Wikipedia . "(What) Rogozin is trying to create reminds one of the Dark Ages in Europe," Borisov writes on Lenta.Ru, where he serves as editor of science and technology.   "In it, there is no place for modernization, there is only the mission of survival." The article catalogs current Russian efforts to develop newer, competitive rockets and modern spacecraft. But according to Borisov...