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Part 3:  Towards Northern Sovereignty            By  Chuck Black This series of posts is attempting to answer some of the questions surrounding the appropriate Canadian response to the recently announced US plan to create an expanded United States Space Force . Past, present and future Liberal Prime Ministers in 1968. Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Lester Pearson and Jean Chretian overlooked by the press and the image of Sir Wilfred Laurier. Photo c/o Wikipedia . In part one, titled " The Axworthy Doctrine ," we attempted to answer some of those questions by showing how the dissolution of the  Soviet Union  in the early 1990's led to a Canadian reassessment of the four traditional pillars of our national defense strategy and a new focus on international peacekeeping. This new policy required space focused communication and surveillance capabilities and led directly to our first military space policy in 1998.   Part two, titled " The C...

           By  Chuck Black It's hard be believe that Palo Alto CA based SSL , a subsidiary of Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies , would drop any of its US government contracts, even a public/private partnership requiring private sector funding in order to proceed. After all, acquiring US government and military contracts was the core reason why Richmond BC based MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) began the process of reincorporation, or " US domestication ," which turned the company into US based Maxar, a firm able to bid on American government and military contracts. But, in the latest of a series of odd twists in the ongoing Maxar meltdown, the firm announced earlier today that it has: ...exercised its right to terminate participation in the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program, a public-private partnership with the US  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), citing a need to focus its resources on ensuring opt...

           By Henry Stewart The US Air Force has released an unclassified report on the growing military challenges posed by foreign controlled space assets. No sharks, but " frickin " laser beams are included. An interesting overview of potential space based weapons from the NASIC " Competing in Space " report. Graphic c/o NASIC . The fifteen page report, titled " Competing in Space ," contains sections on space trends, assets, applications, satellites, launch capabilities, warfare, situational awareness, cyber and electronic threats, anti-satellite missiles, energy directed weapons in space and an overall outlook for the future. As outlined in the January 16th, 2019 National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) post, " USAF, NASIC releases unclassified ‘Competing in Space ’ assessment," the report was created at the request of Air Force senior leaders by the NASIC public affairs office at Wright PAtterson Air Force Base OH to serve as a di...

           By  Chuck Black Stand by for thrills, chills, spills and comedy! Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies has announced the date, time and location for its 2019 annual general meeting (AGM). The theme for the meeting, although officially unstated, might logically be " Yakety Sax ," an instrumental jointly composed by James Q. " Spider " Rich and Boots Randolph in the 1960's, which later gained fame as the theme song for the Benny Hill Show . The program, a skit based British based comedy program which ran from 1969 - 1989, often used the tune for background during scenes where people ran around confused and at high speeds. The confusing component of the Maxar AGM is the part where 90% of Maxar stock value essentially disappeared over the last year. Shareholders are expected to run around at high speeds during the AGM in an attempt to either regenerate the missing stock value or find someone else to blame for the loss. Just like the ...

           By Henry Stewart Ottawa ON based Telsat has announced that the two teams developing competing designs for Telesat’s global low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation have successfully completed their system requirements reviews. As outlined in the January 24th, 2019 Telesat press release, " System Requirements Review Completed for Telesat’s LEO Constellation " both teams, the first led by Leiden Netherlands based Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus) with a second composed of Cannes France based Thales Alenia Space and Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies , are " continuing to advance their detailed designs for the complete LEO system, both space and ground segments ." Systems requirement reviews typically examine functional and performance requirements to insure that the concept proposal will satisfy the mission. They are a critical component in the design review. As outlined on its website, the Telesat global LEO constellation is a propos...

Part 2: The Changing Political Landscape            By  Chuck Black The US plan to create an expanded  United States Space Force  independent of the other five branches of the US military is slowly taking form in the current  Donald Trump  administration, but the genesis of the concept goes back to the 1980's and  Ronald Reagan 's Star Wars  Strategic Defence Initiative .   Since the new plan will essentially absorb major components of existing North American defence, including the  North American Aerospace Defense Command  (NORAD), there is no question that Canada's current defence policy, as outlined in the January 17th, 2019 Federal government overview, " Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada's Defence Policy ," will need to be revised to reconcile existing policies and partnerships with future US actions and intentions. Below is the second part of a short history of Canadian space defence planning which w...

           By  Brian Orlotti The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that it is collaborating with China’s national space agency on lunar landing research. The announcement, coming at a time of increased tension between the superpowers (and increased tensions between Canada and China), is a hopeful sign of rapprochement and a break from past policy. As outlined in the January 18th, 2019 CTV News post, " NASA and China collaborate on Moon exploration ," NASA has held discussions with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on the possibility of having its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft observe the landing plume of China’s Chang’e 4 lunar lander on January 31st, 2019. Also discussed was a proposal for NASA access to Chang’e’4’s orbiter imagery and the placing of a radio beacon on Chang’e 4 to aid future US lunar surface missions by public and private entities. The discussions followed on an exch...

Part 1: The Axworthy Doctrine            By  Chuck Black The US plan to create an expanded  United States Space Force  independent of the other five branches of the US military has slowly been taking form under the current Donald Trump administration, but the genesis of the concept goes back to the 1980's and Ronald Reagan 's Star Wars Strategic Defence Initiative .   Since the new plan will essentially absorb major components of existing North American defence, including the  North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), there is no question that Canada's current defence policy, as outlined in the January 17th, 2019 Federal government overview, " Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada's Defence Policy ," will need to reconcile existing policies and partnerships with future US intentions.   As noted in the September 14th, 2017 Canadian Press post, " Policy says US won’t defend Canada from missile attack: Norad general ...

           By Henry Stewart The US government has released it's latest military review covering the threat posed by Russian, Chinese, North Korean and Iranian missiles and the ways to counter such threats. And this time, at least according to US President Donald Trump, US allies like Canada will have to pay their " fair share " when the new system is deployed. Cover page of the unclassified version of the " 2019 Missile Defence Review ." Graphic c/o Office of the Secretary of Defence .  As outlined in the January 17th 2019 CTV News post, " Canadian officials look for answers as Trump unveils missile-defence plan " the new report puts a heavy emphasis on "space-based sensors and defences to detect, track and ultimately stop missile attacks against the US and its allies from anywhere in the world ." According to the post: The final report had been highly anticipated in Ottawa as Canada and the US prepare to launch discussions about upgrading No...

           By  Chuck Black Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies has been hit by a class action lawsuit from disgruntled Maxar shareholders. The claim accuses Maxar of using its $2.4Bln US ($3.2Bln CDN) acquisition of Westminster CO based  DigitalGlobe  in 2017 to inflate company assets and hide problems with at least one of the vendor’s satellites, the DigitalGlobe WorldView-4 Earth imaging satellite reported lost earlier this month. As outlined in the January 14th, 2019 filing in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado (Case 1:19-cv-00124-SKC) under the title " Logan Durant, et al. v. Maxar Technologies Inc., et al ," the lawsuit claimed that Maxar executives, including ex-CEO Howard Lance, VP and CFO Biggs Porter and executive VP Michael B. (Anil) Wirasekara Jr., provided: ...materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies (during the period from...

           By  Brian Orlotti Fort Worth TX based Bell Helicopter has unveiled a mock-up of the Nexus, a vertical take off and landing (VTOL) vehicle the company intends to build for Uber’s proposed air taxi service. The Nexus offers an appealing vision for the future of air travel---as interpreted by Uber. A hybrid-electric propulsion aircraft, the Bell Nexus will use six tilting ducted fans to vertically take off and land from a rooftop or helipad. It will seat five passengers and have a gross weight capacity of 272 kilograms. As outlined in the January 7th, 2019 the Verge post, " Bell’s hybrid-electric flying car will be available via Uber by the ‘mid-2020s,’ " the aircraft’s fans are hidden inside ducts rather than exposed to ease passengers’ safety concerns about being close to fast-spinning blades. Bell chose hybrid-electric propulsion over a purely electric system so that the aircraft could fly further and carry more weight. Bell wants the Nexus...