Our Space Agency Dreams of Going to Infinity and Beyond!!!!!

          By Chuck Black

The event has been postponed at least once already and likely will be postponed yet again. But, as of now, the 2015 Canadian Space Conference, organized and sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), is listed on the CSA website as scheduled to occur in the John H. Chapman Space Centre in Saint-Hubert, Quebec from June 2nd - 3rd, 2015.

Not that there's anything wrong with that (and the website seems to have been removed just after this post went live)...

CSA headquarters. The John H. Chapman Space Center, located in the municipality of Longueuil, Quebec is a complex of four buildings (an "antenna building," a "pumping room," an "exploration storage facility" and the Chapman Space Centre) fronted by a parking lot, at least according to the Treasury Board of Canada Directory of Federal Real Estate property. Photo c/o the Treasury Board of Canada Directory of Federal Real Property.

It's also worth noting that the 2014 Canadian Space Conference, which was held at the same location on February 25th, 2014 and served as the subject of the February 25th, 2014 post "The "Casablanca" of Space Conferences," was generally considered to be less than a rousing success. 

Sylvain Laporte. Photo c/o CSA. 

Much like last time, the possibly upcoming event will focus on Federal government position papers like Canada's Space Policy Framework and Seizing Canada's Moment: Moving Forward in Science, Technology and Innovation in order to examine how to come most effectively into Federal government compliance with these political initiatives.

But there will also be plenty of time for industry and interested individuals to network, "share their long-term vision and goals" and even listen to "notorious members of the Canadian space community share their views on the future of Canada in space," at least, that's what's going to happen according to the CSA website description.

Yeah, sure. Whatever...

Of course, the event won't be all fun and games. Included with the schedule is a "Side Event on RADARSAT Program Data Exploitation," plus the presentation of the annual John H. Chapman Award of Excellence.

Hopefully, new CSA president Sylvain Laporte will be in attendance if the conference ends up taking place. Perhaps he'll even say something interesting.

Not that there'd be anything wrong with that, either.

Screenshot of the CSA webpage promoting the Canadian Space Summit taken on the morning of April 21st, 2015. According to the website, the event will also include the presentation of the annual John H. Chapman Award of Excellence. Later the same day, the website was taken down.

UPDATE: Later in the day on April 21st, the author received the following e-mail from CSA media relations representative Maya-Olivia Eyssen. It said:

Hello Chuck,

The Canadian Space Conference has been postponed to ensure that the best conditions are in place to allow us to build on the productive and meaningful discussions of last year. 

The Canadian Space Conference is a key opportunity to achieve a common understanding of the current space context and to explore Canada’s future in space together.

Also note that our events web page has been updated.
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/events/ 

Cheers,

Maya

According to the updated website at http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/events/, the event has been "postponed" and "a new date will be confirmed shortly." The main event website at http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/events/2015/csc.asp remains offline.

Of course, this article will be updated as further information becomes available.