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           By  Chuck Black Almost a month after the March 6th, 2019 formal release of " Exploration, Imagination, Innovation - A New Space Strategy for Canada " by the governing Justin Trudeau Liberals , it's becoming increasingly obvious that the new Canadian space strategy is simply not the comprehensive " whole of government review " of activities, policies and legislation expected. According to the February 23rd, 2015 Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat website on the Whole of Government Framework , since 2005 the Treasury Board has " supported the development of a common, government-wide approach to the collection, management, and reporting of financial and non-financial information on program objectives, performance, and results. " The whole-of-government framework maps " the financial and non-financial contributions of departments, agencies, and Crown corporations receiving appropriations to a set of 16 high-level Government of Canada outc...

           By  Chuck Black The 2019 Canadian Federal Budget (expected to be tabled in the Canadian House of Commons on March 19th, 2019), along with the fourth quarter 2018 report (expected on February 28th, 2019) and the year-end stockholder meeting (currently scheduled for May 8th, 2019) of Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies , are currently the hottest topics of gossip among those who focus on the Canadian space industry. How did that happen? It's because Brampton ON based MDA is both the maker of Canada's iconic Canadarm and a Maxar subsidiary. Since the formation of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in 1989, the space industry in Canada has been wrapped around Federal government funding for its favorite contractor. This state of affairs is in the midst of changing. But change comes slowly to the industry and many are hoping that change will be delayed or superseded by announcements deriving from one or more of those events. As outlin...

           By  Brian Orlotti European engineers have designed a new robotic logistical spacecraft for NASA's proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G). Initial concept of the ESPRIT module, as of September 2017. Graphic c/o RussianSpaceWeb . As outlined in the September 9th, 2018 Russia Space Web post, " ESA develops logistics vehicle for cis-lunar outpost ," the new module, dubbed the European system providing refueling infrastructure and telecommunications (ESPRIT) is intended to supply fuel, power and communications for the LOP-G. Its design is a compromise intended to compensate for changes made in early 2017 to the LOP-G's assembly schedule which imposed severe mass restrictions and, therefore, fuel restrictions on its first component. The LOP-G’s planned first component, the power and propulsion bus (PPB) was to have been launched in 2023. In May of 2017, to deal with the imposed mass restrictions, engineers at the European Space Agency (...