National Defence is losing $211.1 million or some 0.76% of its $27.5 billion of its projected budget for the current fiscal year, according to supplementary spending estimates tabled today by Treasury Board President Anita Anand. It’s part of a plan to cut $500 million out of overall government spending and Anand, who held the defence portfolio until four months ago, called it “just the first tranche of the results relating to our spending review.” [node:read-more:link]
Colorado-based Dish Network, which provides direct-broadcast TV programming, has been fined $150,000 for leaving a defunct 21-year-old satellite in in an orbit where it posed a threat. The company admitted liability in the unprecedented case which prompted the Federal Communications Commission to warn that “as satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments.” [node:read-more:link]
India’s rover-equipped Vikram spacecraft landed today near the lunar south pole, an area of scientific and strategic interest believed to house water ice deposits. another nation’s failed attempt to do the same. The success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission came only a few days Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft crashed while trying to land in the same area. [node:read-more:link]
Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years failed August 19 when it crashed while preparing for a pre-landing orbit. The landing near the moon’s south pole had been planned for today but Roscosmos said “the apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface.” [node:read-more:link]
With the U.S. not expected to land astronauts on the moon until sometime in 2026, the first such mission since December 1972, Russia today launched an unmanned moon-bound spacecraft today, 47 years after its last attempt. A soft-landing at the moon’s south pole is scheduled for August 21 and, in the meantime, a similar Indian project is expected to land two days later. [node:read-more:link]
RCAF Colonel Jeremy Hansen, scheduled to be the first non-U.S. person to orbit the moon on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission next year, joined his three crewmates off the southern California coast last month to practise capsule recovery at sea. [node:read-more:link]
Washington state-based L3Harris Technologies, which has some 3,000 employees in Canada, has been permitted to take over Aerojet Rocketdyne, one of two major U.S. rocket-motor manufacturers, also based in Washington. The deal was confirmed after U.S. trade regulators opted not to block the deal despite concerns about corporate concentration. [node:read-more:link]
NASA announced the selection of Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen to fly to the Moon on the Artemis II mission. This will be the first crewed flight test of the Orion spacecraft launching on the SLS rocket. Hansen will be the first Canadian to ever venture to the Moon. [node:read-more:link]
Boeing says its design for a ground-based system to protect communication satellites from signal jamming was validated in a U.S. Space Force test in January. Troy Dawson, vice-president of government satellite systems, said the system Boeing has been developing under contract since 2018, will enable the U.S. and allies to meet “the challenges of an evolving battlefield.” [node:read-more:link]
Two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut aboard the International Space Station are awaiting the arrival February 26 of an uncrewed Russian Soyuz capsule launched today on a rescue mission. Their original ride home was postponed in December due to leaks in two other capsules docked at the ISS. [node:read-more:link]
Streamlining the collection and sharing of huge volumes of satellite-based data is behind a new NATO initiative. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said February 13 that he expects the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space program would be set in motion this week at the alliance’s annual defence ministerial summit in Brussels. [node:read-more:link]
The federal government hopes to have domestic commercial space launch facilities within the next three years. “For many years, Canadian satellites have launched from sites in other countries,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra explained January 20, adding that the government would begin developing the regulatory requirements, safety standards and licensing conditions. He also said the government is ready to approve private-sector launches in the interim on a case-by-case basis. [node:read-more:link]
Colorado-based Maxar Technologies, a publicly-traded company which supplies satellite imagery to U.S. national security agencies, has announced a $6.4-billion takeover by Advent International, a Boston private equity firm. Both sides say the takeover would benefit Maxar in the long term but a previous acquisition, of the British aerospace company Cobham in 2020 eventually saw it sold off in pieces within 18 months. [node:read-more:link]
The head of U.S. military space policy is trying to untangle a knot of security classifications makes it hard to share key operational information with its friends. John Plumb says that while the “asymmetric advantage” afforded by having allies is something that neither China nor Russia can match, “it’s only true if we actually find a way to train and fight with them at the operational level.” [node:read-more:link]
U.S. Space Command has been restructured in a bid to streamline its operations. The announcement effectively formalizes a proposal signed off last year by its commander, General Commander Jim Dickinson. He says “the alignment of task forces and operational centers under one commander will provide . . . a command-and-control structure that enables rapid action to deliver agile and responsive space effects in support of integrated deterrence.” [node:read-more:link]
