British Columbia's outstanding newsrag The Tyee, reports that BC's top space contractor, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd, is selling out to Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Minneapolis for $1.3 billion. The announcement came days after the resignation of the head of Canadian Space Agency, Laurier Boisvert. Coincidence? Hah!
The deal puts control of Canada's Radarsat-2 largely into US hands, to the misgivings of many, not to leave out constituting a major braindrain from Canadian space industry according to the article
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-CSA image
The deal puts control of Canada's Radarsat-2 largely into US hands, to the misgivings of many, not to leave out constituting a major braindrain from Canadian space industry according to the article
.-CSA image
4 comments:
Canadians should not push the panic button quite yet on this one. Canada still has a well-established space program, with its main base the John H Chapman Space Center in Quebec. Chief Astronaut Julie Payette has been on the Space Shuttle, and sometimes works in Mission Control in Houston.
It's well known that Canada and the U.S. need to work together in space, and they have done so extensively in the past.
See my book 'The 13th Day of Christmas' for more details. (insert big smile here)
Good to hear that. Does this mean that the satellite part of the Canadian space program has gone south, but the manned program is still intact?
Ron
ps: About your book The 13th Day of Christmas; got a copy you can send for us to review at BMU?
USA and Canada certainly do need to continue to pull together. As much as some would deride Canada's contribution to the space effort, consider just how far we would have proceeded without the Canada Arms that both the shuttles and the station use and will use. That being far from the only example of the contributions of Canada. I agree, any program that does not include our neighbors can only spell failure for the USA's programs.
Ron asks:
"...ps: About your book The 13th Day of Christmas; got a copy you can send for us to review at BMU?"
It's in that BIG, telephone-book sized monster we sent...'A Question of Balance'. It's one of the three novels included in the book.
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