This Year in Space for Canada!

The Commercial Space blog is officially one year old as of May 29th and what started as a personal vanity project to inventory government agencies, educational facilities and private corporations involved in space focused activities has evolved into a more interesting discussion of existing Canadian capabilities and future potential relating to research and development, technology commercialization and how they all relate to the high frontier.



Of course, since it's called "commercial" space, there's always the part where we're trying to make a little money and this tends to focus and define the 90+ posts and 50,000 words that have been generated here over the last year.

But while some of those posts have certainly been useful and informative, it's best to keep in mind my July 21st, 2009 post which pointed out that "Even Werner von Braun was Wrong Once in Awhile."

Going forward, the blog focus will remain pretty much as stated in my very first post:

Businesses operating space related ventures have been commercially viable since at least the 1960's when the first Early Bird satellite was successfully launched into geosynchronous orbit according to David M. Livingston in his paper, Space: The Final Financial Frontier.

And Canadian companies have always been leaders in this area, beginning with the launch of the Allouette and Anik satellites and moving forward from there. 

In fact, it's got to the point where Cabinet Minister Jim Prentice has gone so far as to say that "Canada has more than 200 firms that are involved in space" employing thousands of skilled workers who know that “working in space or working in the space-based industries is just another career option.”

We'll continue to focus on those industries, the partnerships and the politics surrounding those partnerships. Perhaps we'll even continue to mention some of the better opportunities to make some money off the high frontier.

Is this a great country or what!