Now Amazon Wants to Build a 3200+ Constellation of Low Earth Orbit Micro-Sats to Provide Broadband to Rural Areas

          By Chuck Black

Seattle WA based Amazon.com has joined the list of companies planning to build large constellations of hundreds or thousands of low Earth orbiting satellites able to provide broadband internet connectivity to rural areas not currently being served.

As outlined in the April 4th, 2019 Geekwire post, "Amazon to offer broadband access from orbit with 3,236-satellite ‘Project Kuiper’ constellation," Amazon hasn’t disclosed who would build the satellites or when they would be launched and hasn’t yet filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for US market access for the system.

But it has provided a name for the new constellation. As outlined in the Geekwire post:

The effort, code-named Project Kuiper, follows up on last September’s mysterious reports that Amazon was planning a “big, audacious space project” involving satellites and space-based systems. The Seattle-based company is likely to spend billions of dollars on the project, and could conceivably reap billions of dollars in revenue once the satellites go into commercial service. 

It’ll take years to bring the big, audacious project to fruition, however, and Amazon could face fierce competition from SpaceX, OneWeb and other high-profile players. 

Project Kuiper’s first public step took the form of three sets of filings made with the International Telecommunication Union last month by the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Washington, D.C.-based Kuiper Systems LLC. The ITU oversees global telecom satellite operations and eventually will have to sign off on Kuiper’s constellation. 

According to the article, "Amazon said the satellites would provide data coverage for spots on Earth ranging in latitude from 56 degrees north to 56 degrees south. About 95 percent of the world’s population lives within that wide swath of the planet."

This would put the Amazon constellation in direct competition with Ottawa ON based Telesat which, as outline on their Telesat LEO. Why LEO web page is hoping to do much the same thing using only a few hundred micro-sats.

An Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire said it’s too early to say whether Kent WA based Blue Origin, another company founded and controlled by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will have a lock on the launch contracts, saying, “We will of course look at all options.”

As outlined in the January 31st, 2019 Space News post, "Telesat signs New Glenn multi-launch agreement with Blue Origin for LEO missions," Telesat has:

agreed to launch satellites for its future low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation on multiple New Glenn missions, Blue Origin announced January 31st. 

The agreement, for an unspecified number of launches and satellites, makes Telesat the fifth customer to sign up to use the reusable launcher, which is slated for a maiden flight in 2021.

In essence, it's a small world.

Chuck Black.

___________________________________________________________

Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog. 

Modeler for the Worlds Space Programs

Not every fourteen year old has an all consuming adolescent passion that can be turned into a full-time and profitable business. But some of us get lucky or are skilled enough to make it happen, despite the odds.

Astronaut Alan Bean with Nick Proach, who is holding the hammer used by Bean on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969.

For Nick Proach, the current owner of British Columbia based Proach Models, it all started back in 1971 when he built a small scale model of the much larger Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (known then as the "moon buggy" after its strong resemblance to the high and wide wheeled Volkswagen "dune buggy" from the same period) which was to be used for the Apollo 15 mission from July 26th to August 7th, 1971 to help transport astronauts around the Moons surface.

He told reporters at the CTV Television Network (now a part of Bell Media) about his model and before he realized it he was building the entire Apollo 15 landing site in miniature for the network to use during their coverage of the moon mission.

CNN correspondent Myles O’Brien with Nick Proach and special guest Walter Cronkite during the CNN coverage of STS-95 in October 1998.

More projects followed and in 1994, he formed Proach Models to sell his models to news outlets looking to make space activities understandable to the population; museums dedicated to memorializing the glory days of space flight; corporations, space centers and government agencies looking to possess museum quality replicas of those early spacecraft and private collectors worldwide interested in highly detailed models of space hardware.

The 1/48th scale model ISS S1 Truss.

Two of his models have even gone into space.

A foot long, high-fidelity 1/48th scale model replica of an “S1 Truss (part of the keel structure) for the International Space Station (ISS), was flown to the ISS on the STS-112 mission, which lifted-off on October 7, 2002. The model was designed to help astronauts plot and plan their extra-vehicular activities (EVA’s), when hooking up the S1 truss to the other sections of the ISS. The Proach model was also used during an in-flight press conference to explain STS-112 mission details to the media and public.

The model Richard Garriott took to the ISS in 2008.

And video game entrepreneur Richard Garriott, took a tiny model of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft into space with him aboard the full sized Soyuz spacecraft he used in his self funded trip to the ISS in 2008. The model measures over an inch long and is approximately 1¼ inches across the solar panels.

Proach is also a space flight historian with a vast knowledge and library of records from all manned and unmanned spaceflights along with an extensive print and video library and takes time to keep up with developments in the aerospace field as a regular contributor in space-related magazines and periodicals.

He's also a promoter of aerospace education with a strong belief that manned space flight contributes positively to the economy and is the biggest single peace-time driver of technological advancement.

But mostly, Proach just likes to build the most historically accurate and highest detailed museum quality models possible and do his part to help chronicle an important piece of our history.

Anyone looking to learn more about his models should go to his web page at http://www.spacemodel.com/. Tell him that you were referred by the Commercial Space blog.

A 1/48th museum quality scale model of the shuttle Discovery, available from Proach Models. 

Two Billion Dollars for the Canadian Space Agency
Part 2: What Our Federal Government Thinks!

Captain Canuck "punches above his weight."

This series of posts were written in response to comments Canadian Space Agency (CSA) president Steve MacLean made on May 12th, 2010, while presenting to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) where he said that an extra two billion dollars, spread out over five years was needed to to "put us at the table" of international space activities and "drive innovation."

In part 1 of this post, titled "Do We Really "Punch Above our Weight?" I compared CSA activities to those of other national space programs with equivalent budgets such as the Iranian Space Agency (ISA), the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), the South Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and the National Space Agency of the Ukraine (NSAU).

Dudley Do-Right doesn't.

The conclusion reached was that space agencies with budgets in the $200 - $500 million dollar per year range all generally have a useful combination of rockets, astronauts, robotics and strong science programs just like Canada.

Sometimes, their stuff is even better than ours.

So while the CSA is doing some interesting things, we're not necessarily  "punching above our weight" or performing on the international stage in a manner all out of proportion to our funding.

But here's where it starts to get interesting.

While the CSA lists an annual budget of $300 million dollars per year on the CSA FAQ's web page, almost no one in government (or anywhere else for that matter) actually believes the CSA budget is that small.

At the very least, for any legitimate assessment of the CSA budget, we need to include at least two additional items. These are:

Canada's first superhero. Often forgotten.

• The $397 million CDN allocated over five years by the federal government in 2010 specifically for earth observation satellites commented as described in various media reports including a March 4th, 2010 SpaceRef.ca article "RADARSAT Constellation Mission get Funding in Budget"

• The $110 million CDN economic stimulus package to support new space technologies including the next generation Canadarm as described in the March 5, 2010 Spaceflight.com article "CSA will fund a Next Generation Canadarm."

A smart politician will also immediately realize that several billion additional dollars are also available for general research and science through other federal government departments.

Johnny Canuck. Wholesome, but simple minded.

These programs are included as part of the budgets of Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) with its $300 million per year budget, the National Research Council (NRC) with it's larger $800 million per year budget, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) with it's even larger $958 million per year budget and quite a few other departments and councils which can (and often do) end up funding space focused or CSA originated programs.

These additional funding sources are on top of the formal CSA budget.

As well, each of these other departments (except for DRDC) is also tasked by the federal government with the very same mission to "drive innovation" as the CSA.

They're each governed by the current Industry Canada science & technology strategy as outlined in documents like the Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage (May 2007) and the Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage Progress Report (June 2009). Those two documents are the closest thing Canada has had to a long term space strategy since the 2003 publication of "The Canadian Space Strategy."

Canada Jack. Acrobatic, skilled gymast.

In essence, the federal government considers the CSA as a smaller part of the larger subset of research and development agencies to which it already allocates several billion dollars each year.

But the Industry Canada policies focus on commercialization, which is well outside the traditional exploration and development mandates of previous CSA long term space plans.

The CSA doesn't even officially track commercialization, but instead tends to focus on hiving off successful technologies (like communications satellites and Earth imaging) to private industry and small business where they often become widely successful, but never really contribute to the perception of CSA expertise, success or the fulfillment of Industry Canada mandates.

And the politicians perceive of this as being all the same crap (or government funding bucket), for the same purpose (to drive innovation and create jobs)  but from different piles (or government agencies).

Wolverine. Effective, current and also Canadian.

So when CSA president MacLean asks for two billion additional dollars, the standard government response is to smile politely and then ignore him even though he's asking for the money to perform a traditional mandate that other agencies won't contemplate.

But the government just doesn't perceive these difference between the CSA and other Industry Canada departments and the consensus is that they're already contributing billions of dollars to an activity which the CSA doesn't seem to understand very well, but should.

Now the government perception doesn't automatically have to be this way and even if it stays blinkered, there are steps that can be taken to grow the CSA budget and build credibility for space focused exploration and development activities, just so long as we remember that we also need to include a commercialization aspect (plus track successful projects and commercial spin-offs).

How to go about doing that will be the subject for part 3 of this post.

Two Billion Dollars for the Canadian Space Agency
Part 1: Do We Really "Punch Above our Weight?"

CSA president MacLean.

Back in November of last year, I presented a paper at the 2010 Canadian Space Summit titled "Two Billion Dollars for the Canadian Space Agency: Historical Antecedents, Available Options and a Realistic Appraisal of the CSA’s Chances of Ever Getting a Funding Increase."

I wrote the paper in response to comments Canadian Space Agency (CSA) president Steve MacLean made on May 12th, 2010, while presenting to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) where he said:

You know what?

If you want to do a first rate (job) on some of the examples (of potential CSA projects) I gave you, you are looking at an additional budget of $2 billion over five years.

That will put us at the table. That will drive innovation. 

I've always been one of those people wanting to drive innovation.

But I've also always wanted to see what $2 billion spread over five years could allow the CSA to accomplish, where the money could come and how our current opportunities compare to earlier opportunities and previous Canadian long term space plans.

There are no obvious answers to those questions but here's what I found.

Nations with active space programs color coded by capabilities c/o Wikipedia.

If we compare the annual CSA self described budget of approximately $300 million CDN (according to the CSA FAQ page) with the budgets of 20 other national space agencies, we find that the CSA is ranked 13th among the top 20 national space agencies in terms of funding, at least according to the current Wikipedia entry.  

This really isn't all that bad given that we're ahead of most everyone else except for the big, billion dollar plus a year players like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ($19 billion per year), the European Space Agency ($5.4 billion per year), the French Space Agency ($2.59 billion per year), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ($2.46 billion per year), the Russian Federal Space Agency ($2.4 billion per year), the German Aerospace Center ($2 billion per year), the Chinese National Space Administration ($1.3 billion per year) the Indian Space Research Organization ($1.27 billion per year) and the Italian Space Agency ($1 billion per year).

But if we then make a more detailed comparison between CSA activities and the other national space agencies with similar budgets we find that:

• The Iranian Space Agency (ISA) with an allocated budget of approximately $500 million USD and few international avenues for co-operation is focused almost entirely on doing everything internally (with perhaps some Chinese assistance). The country is “orbital capable" (starting with the Shahab-3 rocket), has launched and recovered live animals from suborbital trajectories and is slowly moving towards a manned space program.

• The new UK Space Agency (UKSA), formed in April 2010 with an allocated budget of approximately $415 million USD is building strong international partnerships with the European Space Agency, NASA and India but also focused internally on the development of game changing “breakthrough” technologies in collaboration with private business and public educational facilities such as Virgin Galactic, Reaction Engines Ltd. (the developers of the Skylon space plane), Surrey Satellites and others. 

UK launches new space agency. Uploaded by itnnews.

• The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) with an allocated budget of $343 million USD focuses on joint technology development, initially with the US, but also with China, Russia and the Ukraine. The agency has current suborbital rocket launch capabilities (the Sonda series, plus the VSB-30, VB-30 and VS-40 rockets) and a history of ITAR related issues with the US, mostly because of it's ongoing Southern Cross orbital rocketry development program in conjunction with the Russians.

The control room of the NARO Space Center in South Korea.

• The South Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) with an allocated budget of $300 million USD focuses primarily on aerospace technology, but has used partnerships with others to develop the NARO  Korean Space Launch Vehicle,  various unmanned aerial vehicles, high-altitude airships, and a next-generation multi-purpose helicopter project. In addition, several satellites, including the KOMPSAT (also known as Arirang) Seriese, the COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite), and the STSAT (Science and Technology Satellite), are developed, operated, or under development by KARI. 

• The National Space Agency of the Ukraine (NSAU) with an allocated budget of $250 million USD benefits from the legacy infra-structure it shares with Russia and is perhaps the most capable of the five organizations. The NSAU oversees a variety of launch vehicle and satellite programs with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, the European Space Agency, NASA, and commercial ventures such as the Sea Launch and the Galileo positioning system. NSAU rightly brags that 20% of space launches in the world are made using Ukraine rockets such as Zenit, Cyclone and DneprSince. The country has produced and launched more than 400 satellites and has a strong astronaut corps.

Zinit 2 at Baikonor Cosmodrome in December 2001.

The tentative conclusion seems to be that a specific dollar amount doesn’t necessarily limit available options when running a space program. After all, our direct national competitors with equivalent budgets also have rockets, astronauts and strong science and technology programs.

In fact, a cursory look at the competition would seem to indicate no specific area where Canadian's really punch "above our weight" in space.

If any organization stands out, it's NSAU, with the smallest budget but 20% of the worlds satellites launching on Ukraine rockets. Of course, much seems to depend on history (the Ukraine was once a  part of the old Soviet Union) present partnerships, existing infrastructure and national requirements.

But some of it also seems to depend on the conscious choice of the program administrators and the national governments which place restrictions on space agencies, no matter how big the budget.

So the CSA isn't necessarily limited by it's budget but might be limited by our federal government and the perceptions of CSA administrators.

Why would the federal government and our CSA set out to "limit" space activities?

We'll discuss those issues and the federal governments perception of our Canadian space program in part 2 of this post.

ASX Announces 2011 Symposium Speakers

ASX in 2011. Media savvy.

Since incorporating as a nonprofit in 2003, the community managed Astronomy & Space Exploration Society (ASX) at the University of Toronto has grown into one of the largest space focused organizations in Canada with approximately 2300 members building public events to educate, excite, and inspire students, professionals and the general public on astronomy and space.

Pizza for ISS in 2001. Not media savvy.

They're a knowledgeable group of up and coming experts who bring marketing savvy and social media expertise to an industry long dominated by the dull press releases and boring media advisories that more properly belong to an earlier era.

Lately, ASX members have branched out to share their knowledge with other organizations. ASX past president Farnaz Ghadaki spoke on 'Next Generation Considerations for Commercialization of Space' and 'Space Marketing' at the 2010 Canadian Space Summit while another ASX past president, Tahir Merali was a plenary speaker at the 61st Annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC2010), held in the Czech Republic last October.

But the core focus for the organization has always been the January "Expanding Canada's Frontiers" symposium and the lineup for their 8th annual event, scheduled for Friday, January 28th, 2011 from 7:00-9:00 PM has just been released. The focus for 2011 is on "unraveling the universe" with speakers including:

• Dr. Alexei Vladimir Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Filippenko is considered to be one of the worlds most highly sited astrophysicists and has spearheaded efforts to develop robotic telescopes, including the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT), which is helping to conduct the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS). He is also a prominent member of both the High-Redshift Supernova Search Team and the Hubble Space Telescope Nuker Team which uses high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy to investigate the structure and dynamics of normal galaxies. His research focuses on supernovae and active galaxies at optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared wavelengths. 

• Dr. Michel Lefebvre, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Victoria who founded the Canadian ATLAS collaboration which contributed to the construction of the ATLAS particle detector that currently study high energy proton-proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Lefebvre has also served on and chaired the Subatomic Physics Grant Selection Committee of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). His research focuses on high energy particle physics, the development, the origin of mass and quantum field gauge theories. 

• Dr. Gilbert Holder, an associate professor of physics at McGill University. He is also the chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Cosmological Astrophysics and a scholar with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s (CIfAR) Cosmology & Gravity Program. His research focuses on astrophysics and cosmology, studies of the cosmic microwave background, large scale structure in the universe, dark energy, the first stars and massive clusters of galaxies.

Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto.

Inside Convocation Hall.

The event typically draws a large crowd exceeding 1000 and will be held in the ample facilities at Convocation Hall, 31 Kings College Circle on the University of Toronto campus.

The event is free for current U of T students who have registered in advanced (click here for student registeration), $15 dollars CDN until January 6th, 2011 for those of us who are no longer in school (click here for non-student registration) and $20 dollars CDN after January 6th for those of us who are simply a little slow to register.

Second Day Space Summit Media Stories

Mike Gold

With all due respects to Marie-Claude Williamson (from the Geological Survey of Canada, who chaired the planetary exploration session), Alan Scott (from COM DEV International, who chaired the life sciences session), Minh Oh (from the Canadian Space Agency, who chaired the law and policy session) and the very capable Jaymie Matthews (from the University of British Columbia who chaired the astronomy session) the final day of the 2010 Canadian Space Summit (CSS) was pretty much all about Bigelow Aerospace and it's globe trotting corporate counsel who dropped in during Spaceref.ca chief architect Marc Bouchers commerce and commercialization session.

According to his presentation, Gold (who also runs the Washington, DC Bigelow office) just wants to remind Canadians that we have an alternative ride to orbit and a new place for scientific experiments after the shuttle retires next year.

According to the November 23rd, 2010 Canadian Press article "Vegas firm hoping to attract Canadian astronauts onto inflatable space station:"

"Bigelow Aerospace says it's working on a commercial space complex that will have the strength of a Kevlar bullet-proof vest. A company representative was in Ottawa last weekend, delivering a keynote speech and lobbying officials at the annual summit of the Canadian Space Society."

"Mike Gold, a Bigelow director, called it his first attempt to reach out to the Canadian government and the space industry. He argued that the facility will offer countries a cheaper way into space within five years."

The article goes on to paraphrase Gold as indicating that Canada "is exactly the sort of customer Bigelow is looking for as the entire industry works to fill the void that will be created once the U.S. space shuttles stop flying in 2011."

The Canadian Press article also indicates that Gilles LecLerc, the director of space exploration for the CSA, said that the agency is not involved, "in any way" with the Bigelow project.

The proposed Bigelow space station.

But of course, that doesn't mean that they can't talk. The CSA and it's federal government masters would be foolish not to at least entertain the option of alternative and potentially lower cost access to space.

Bigelow already has two prototype space-station modules in orbit, the Genesis I and Genesis II and has partnered with US aviation giant Boeing on a man rated commercial crew transport vehicle to ferry future astronauts to their Sundancer and BA 330 orbital modules, which are scheduled for launch and orbit around 2014-2015.

Of course, there were a lot of other fascinating topics going on Sunday that didn't make the "mass media" but perhaps should have.

For example, the pressing need to develop legal infrastructures to properly police the growing number of space faring nations and commercial space players like Bigelow resonated throughout the Summit but the law and policy sessions tackled these issues directly with presentations by James Ferguson (from the University of Manitoba's Centre for Defence and Security Studies), Doug Bancroft (from the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing) and Michael Dodge (from McGill University).

Grant Bonin

The glue tying the the law and policy speakers together is that the environment for industry and scientific growth is defined by law and policy and these areas should be a priority for government (and defining fair and equitable rules is the one thing that governments can do better than private industry).

I was also quite impressed with the presentation by Grant Bonin, who provided an overview of activities at the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and its Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) where he seems to be bucking for a job in sales (he kept saying "if you'd like to have one of these items, you should talk with me after the session.").

PARS3C author Elizabeth Howell and Marc Boucher are covering the Summit over at Spaceref.ca all this week, so if you'd like to learn a little more about some of the other sessions, you're encouraged to go and take a look at what they've put together.

Media Notes from the 2010 Canadian Space Summit

The Lord Elgin Hotel in downtown Ottawa bills itself as one of the "nicest Ottawa hotels" with a location "directly across from Confederation Park and the National Arts Centre" which puts it steps away from the Rideau Canal, the Federal Parliament Buildings and the Rideau Centre."

Entrance to the Lord Elgin Hotel

Of course, I didn't get to see any of those places this weekend because I was inside the Lord Elgin attending the 2010 Canadian Space Summit. For those of us who couldn't make it, here are a couple of quick overviews of some of the more interesting Friday and Saturday sessions as described by our mass media:

• "Multi-sized rovers could be Canada's Future in Space" according to Tom Spears in his November 20th 2010 Post Media News article of the same name. The article quotes Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, head of exploration planning at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), who laid out a variety of goals for Canada in his Saturday presentation. The article also quotes Canadian Space Society (CSS) president Kevin Shortt as stating that real  progress at the CSA is dependent on the development of a long term commitment from the Canadian government to fund future space activities. According to Shortt, no company wants to start the long, expensive job of designing new Mars rovers and find out later that the government wants satellites instead.

• Others think that "Space may be first frontier for the next major conflict" according to Canadian Press author Peter Rakobowchuk in his November 20th, 2010 article. Colonel Andre Dupuis, the Director of Space Development for the Canadian Forces (CF) is quoted as stating that "the first line in the sand for the next major conflict may very well be in space or cyberspace, but probably not on the ground or in the air or in the sea." Also quoted is Dr. James Fergusson, the director of Canada’s Centre for Defence and Security Studies who stated that the public really doesn’t care much about what’s going on in space which makes policy development difficult. An updated (although not substantially changed) Canadian space defense policy is expected to be released by the federal government next March.

• Elizabeth Howell, over on the PARS3C blog focused on casual and informal conversations at the National Space Awareness Workshop, a biannual event put on by the Canadian Alumni of the International Space University and held in conjunction with the space summit. Her November 22nd, 2010 article "Telesat, COM DEV ready to diversify their revenue" quotes Telesat VP of Sales Paul Bush as stating that an IPO was “always in the plans” for Telesat. According to the article "the number of dollars the Canadian Space Agency has available to dole out contracts will decrease."

• Neptec Design Group CEO Ian Christie took some time out of his busy schedule to attend the Saturday evening Summit banquet to speak of his past experiences with the US space shuttle program. But he also runs a business and spent the early part of the week finalizing a new CSA contract, according to the November 23rd, 2010 Ottawa Business Journal article "Neptec wins 11.5M to test lunar rover with stimulus funding." According to the article, the project will  include contributions from Ontario Drive and Gear Ltd., COM DEV Canada, McGill University, the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology and NGC Aerospace. 

The Friday and Saturday sessions focused on planetary exploration, education and outreach but my personal perception is that education and outreach were the most important topics covered given the quoted comments from CSS President Shortt (on the need for a long term commitment from government and an outline of expected future space activities) and Colonel Dupruis (on the expected military space policy update next March).

The Sunday sessions, focused on Earth orbit, life sciences, astronomy, commercialization, law and policy will be the subject of my next post.

CSA, MDA, Com Dev, Telesat, DND, Neptec, Bigelow, Academics and Others at Space Summit

Nobody goes to a conference without first knowing the topics being discussed and the speakers leading the discussions.

It's therefore timely that the Canadian Space Society has finally gotten around to releasing the list of speakers for the 2010 Canadian Space Summit,.being held at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa from November 19th - 21st.

Keynote and featured speakers include Dr. Iain Christie, the president of the Neptec Design Group; Colonel Andre Dupuis, the director of space development for the Department of National Defence (DND); Dr. Jim Fergusson, the director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies and professor in the department of political studies at the University of Manitoba; Douglas Bancroft, the director general of the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS); Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, the head of exploration planning at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA); Dr. Nadeem Ghafoor, the manager of planetary exploration at Macdonald Detwiller (MDA) and Mike Gold, the Director of DC operations for Bigelow Aerospace.

The conference is structured around a series of distinct sessions, each focused on a specific area of expertise. Session chairs include:

• Alfred Ng from the CSA who is chairing the Earth orbital sessions.
• Marie-Claude Williamson from Geological Survey of Canada who is chairing the planetary exploration session.
• Jaymie Matthews from the University of British Columbia (UBC) who is chairing the astronomy session.
• Minh On from the CSA who is chairing the law and policy sessions.
• Philomena Bonis from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario who is chairing the education and outreach sessions.
• Alan Scott from ComDev International who is chairing the life sciences sessions.
• Marc Boucher from Spaceref.ca who is chairing the commerce and commercialization sessions.

Altogether 36+ speakers are expected to give short presentations. The full speaker list should now be available on the Space Summit website but if it's not, send me an e-mail at mr.chuck.black@gmail.com and I'll send you out the spreadsheet I received from Wayne Ellis of Appspace Solutions, who is one of the organizers.

As well, the Canadian Alumni of the International Space University (CAISU) are also setting up shop in the Lord Elgin on Friday, November, 19th where they will be holding their National Space Awareness Workshop.

It's focused on "ISS to Commercialization: Canada's Future Contributions" and the speaker topics revolve around media awareness issues, the public perception of space, commercialization of space focused activities and the potential to utilize the International Space Station (ISS) through 2030 (which seems to be a little later than it's officially scheduled to operate).

Speakers for these sessions include Paul Bush, the VP of North American Sales for Telesat and Dr. Elliott Coleshil, the software systems lead of the Com Dev mission development group (which has control over the Com Dev exactEarth Ltd. subsidiary).

Some tickets are still available at the door for those looking to attend both the CAISU and the CSS sessions but I'm told the Saturday night banquet is sold out (and I'm also told I'm having chicken).

I'll also be speaking in the Sunday afternoon commerce and commercialization session on the topic of "Two Billion for the Canadian Space Agency: Historical Antecedents, Available Options and a Realistic Appraisal." I'll be right after the guy from ComDev who is right after the guy from Bigelow Aerospace.

Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with such illustrious company.