usa technology

           By  Chuck Black According to Montreal PQ based GHGSat  CEO Stéphane Germain, the most important takeaway from the recent announcement that his firm had raised US$10Mln US ($13Mln CDN) in Series A2 financing in a deal led by the London UK based OGCI Climate Investments , was to note that it provided " access to the world's largest grouping of oil and gas companies interested in the transition to a lower carbon future ." Germain spoke with this blog earlier in the week. OGCI is the billion dollar investment arm of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) a voluntary, CEO-led initiative composed of approximately a dozen of the world's top oil and gas companies. OGCI was " created to pool knowledge and collaborate on action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions " according to the OGCI website. The latest funding also included financial backing from Houston TX based Schlumberger (the world's largest oilfield services company), the New Y...

           By Henry Stewart The Toronto ON based regional office of Paris France based  Thales Group , one of Canada's larger and more noteworthy aerospace subcontractors, has joined the MAXAR/MDA dominated " Don't Let Go Canada " coalition, according to the coalition website. As outlined most recently in the August 2nd, 2018 post, " Airbus Competing Against Thales/ Maxar to Design and Build the 117 Satellite Telesat Constellation ," both Maxar and Thales are already working together to access subcontract work from Ottawa ON based Telesat  for its proposed low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. They're competing against Fort Erie ON based Airbus Canada for the final contract and Telesat's decision is expected over the next few months. Neither Telesat nor Airbus has so far joined the Maxar/MDA coalition. By signing up, Thales joins Mississauga ON based  Honeywell Canada , Mississauga ON based  Magellan Aerospace , Brampton O...

           By  Brian Orlotti Seattle WA based Stratolaunch Systems Corporation , the aerospace firm founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has announced that it is exploring the development of a series of rocket planes that would serve as a testbed for hypersonic flight. As outlined in the September 20th, 2018 Geek Wire post, " Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems lays out a roadmap for hypersonic rocket planes ," Stratolaunch senior technical fellow for hypersonics Stephen Corda presented a concept study detailing a delta-wing uncrewed testbed aircraft called Hyper-Z at the 22nd American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA)  International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies conference, which was held on September 19th - 22nd in Orlando FL. Called the Hyper-Z, the proposed rocket plane would feature a hydrogen-fueled rocket engine as its main propulsion system, but could also be equipped with an air-breathing engin...

           By  Chuck Black Vancouver BC based UrtheCast is moving quickly to make up for lost time and (hopefully) remind the country that the private sector can also fund and execute complex space focused projects. According to the January 3rd, 2018 Cantech Letter post, " Urthecast has 264% upside, Clarus Securities says ," the stock market was betting big on UrtheCast. But in March 2018, its stock fell through the floor, loosing almost half its value on March 8th (from $0.98 CDN to $0.55CDN) and slowly dropping under $0.30 CDN per share over the next several months. As outlined in the June 26th, 2018 post, " UrtheCast Shareholders Endorse the New Board ," the new board and CEO, ex-MDA president Don Osborne, are hoping to generate a turn around, or at least some signs of life, before the next financial reporting period, sometime this fall. Graphic c/o UrtheCast. As outlined in the September 20th, 2018 UrtheCast press release, " UrtheCast Announc...

           By Henry Stewart Brampton ON based MDA Space Missions (a subsidiary of Westminster, CO based Maxar Technologies ) is moving forward with its controversial campaign to lobby the Federal government to provide up to $2Bln CDN over a period of up to twenty years to fund a " third-generation Canadarm " for NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G). The campaign, currently being pushed by Maxar/MDA with the assistance of senior members of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Aerospace Industry Association of Canada  (AIAC) space committee and others, is wrapped around a suggestion that funding a new Canadarm would insure Canadian astronaut access to the LOP-G in much the same way the the earlier generations of Canadarms provided Canada's entrance fee into the International Space Station (ISS). A subtext of the main plan seems to be that funding a major, international program would also re-establish Canada's traditional role as a p...

           By  Brian Orlotti On September 17th , SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and an entourage of artists will visit the Moon in 2023, making them the first private citizens ever to fly beyond low Earth orbit. Maezawa, founder of Japanese e-commerce giant Zozotown , will fly around the moon aboard a " Big F*cking Rocket " (BFR). A group of six to eight artists of his choosing, from painters and sculptors to fashion designers and architects, will join Maezawa on his journey to share the experience. The group will also share their experiences with the public via a website ( https://dearmoon.earth/ ) that Maezawa has created just for the mission. Neither Musk nor Maezawa would disclose the flight’s cost, but both confirmed that Maezawa has already made a substantial downpayment. Because Maezawa has shouldered the full cost of the flight, the artists travelling with him will fly for free. Musk emphasized that the ...

           By  Chuck Black Rumour has it that the Brampton ON based MDA Space Missions (a subsidiary of Westminster, CO based Maxar Technologies ) submission to the  2019 Federal government Pre-Budget Consultations , is simply the first step in an estimated $1-2Bln CDN request for Federal funding by Maxar/MDA to build a new Canadarm for NASA's planned  Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G). Rumour also has it that the new "' Don’t Let Go Canada ' coalition is mostly organized through Maxar/MDA because, as outlined in the September 13th, 2018 post, " Dead Cat Bounce! New Canadian Space "Coalition" Wants Much the Same as Last Time, But With Money " it's also focused on encouraging the Canadian government to fund the LOP-G. Of course, those rumours are more than just rumours. And Maxar/MDA is also receiving at least some help from others. According to several high-level sources within the Canadian space industry, certain N...

           By  Chuck Black The four hundred and seventy-seven briefs received by the Federal government as part of the 2019 Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2019 Budget  have been posted online in advance of a series of parlimentary meetings on the topic, which are currently scheduled to begin on September 27th, 2018. The government will use the knowledge gained through this process to create the 2019 Federal budget, which will be released next spring. Given that, it's worth noting that Brampton ON based MDA Space Missions (a subsidiary of Westminster, CO based Maxar Technologies) isn't the only Canadian space company contributing to the Federal pre-budget consultations. It might not even be the only company expending a great deal of time, effort and money to advocate its viewpoint. Here are overviews of eight other space focused organizations which contributed briefs to the Federal government. They include: A group submission from...

           By  Chuck Black A " new " Canadian space coalition, wrapped around a public advocacy campaign more evocative of a 1996 En Vogue love ballad than any past Canadian space adventure, has rolled out its website and plans to " help secure our place in space ." As outlined on its newly launched " Don’t Let Go Canada website ," a group of " concerned Canadians representing industry, academia and the space enthusiast community" have gathered together "to ask the Canadian government to secure Canada’s place in space by putting forward a funded space strategy ." Not that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, the only real problem with the proposal (other than the silly name, the underlying assumption that nothing can be done without Federal government funding/ supervision and the lack of any academic institution willing to go on record as supporting the plan) is its decision to create a public facing advocacy campaign (complete...

           By Henry Stewart Almost seven months after the  five " industry led " technology groups slated to get a piece of the $950Mln Federal government “ superclusters ” funding program were announced in Ottawa to much fanfare, none of the groups seem to have received any of the promised funding. Innovation minister Navdeep Bains announces the five " industry led " technology groups which would receive funding under the Federal Supercluster program at the Ottawa, ON based Canada Science and Technology Museum (CSTM) on Thursday, February 15th, 2018. Photo c/o CBC News . On the other hand, and as outlined in the September 6th, 2018 Financial Post article, " Canada’s $950-million bet on innovation gets set to take the next step ," the five winning groups, " have been hammering out details and funding agreements with Ottawa and some expect to launch projects this fall ." According to the article, " money is expected to start flowing this fal...

           By  Chuck Black When multiple mid-level bureaucrats from two separate countries come together in an open, public forum to explain that the existing method they use to interact has been very successful in the past and shouldn't be changed, then you just know that others further up the food chain have been thinking differently. Such was the case when Scott Pace , the executive secretary of the US National Space Council (NSC), NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine , current  Canadian Space Agency (CSA) president Sylvain Laporte and past CSA president William " Mac " Evans , got together in Washington DC with several dozen other space experts on September 7th, 2018 as part of a public presentation from the Washington DC based Canada Institute titled " Over the Horizon: A New Era for Canada-US Space Cooperation? " The initial two hour set of presentations is available on YouTube, for those who'd like to access the primary sour...