Thursdays Soyuz MS-10 Rocket Failure Could End Up Assisting US Commercial Crew Development

          By Henry Stewart

Both astronauts are safe after a Russian Soyuz MS-10 rocket failed less than two minutes after launching an American and a Russian on their scheduled Expedition 57-58 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday morning.

It was the first failure of a manned Soyuz booster at high altitude since April 1975, when Soyuz 7K-T No.39 also failed to achieve orbit.

As outlined in the October 11th, 2018 Associated Press post, "2 astronauts safe after Soyuz forced to make emergency landing," NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin were both subjected "to heavy gravitational forces as their capsule automatically jettisoned from the Soyuz booster rocket and fell back to Earth at a sharper-than-normal angle and landed about 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan."

This latest failure is probably not going to help the Russian space industry.

But it might end up helping Hawthorne CA based SpaceX and Houston TX based Boeing. Both companies are building privately operated crew vehicles under the US Commercial Crew Development program designed to replace Russian rockets and Soyuz capsules with US boosters and spacecraft for low Earth orbit and ISS resupply missions.

At press time, it is not known what impact the Soyuz MS-10 failure and subsequent investigation will have on the ISS crew schedule. According to the October 11th, 2018 Canadian Space Agency (CSA) press release, "Canadian Space Agency Statement on Soyuz Launch Abort," the CSA is monitoring the situation:

A thorough investigation into the cause of the incident will be conducted by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. It is not known whether this will affect Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques' launch date of December 20, 2018.

According to the press release, both astronauts are en route to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow for debriefing and medical examinations.

As outlined in the October 11th, 2018 Reuters post, "Astronauts Taking Off for International Space Station Make Emergency Landing," Russia immediately suspended all manned space launches.

Dmitry Rogozin, the chief of the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos) also ordered a state commission to be set up to "investigate what had gone wrong."

Image c/o @JimBridenstine.

As outlined in the Reuters post:

The failure is a setback for the Russian space programme and the latest in a string of mishaps.  

In August, a hole appeared in a Soyuz capsule already docked to the ISS which caused a brief loss of air pressure and had to be patched. Rogozin has said it could have been "sabotage".

For now, the United States relies on Moscow to carry its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) which was launched 20 years ago. NASA tentatively plans to send its first crew to the ISS using a SpaceX craft instead of a Soyuz next April. 

Washington and NASA echoed those thoughts.

NASA’s Administrator Jim Bridenstine remarked on his twitter feed that “NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin are in good condition following today’s aborted launch. I’m grateful that everyone is safe. A thorough investigation into the cause of the incident will be conducted”

According to the October 11th, 2018 The Verge post, "Today’s failed Soyuz launch complicates the future of the International Space Station," the Russian Soyuz spacecraft "is currently the only vehicle that can take humans to and from the ISS, and the rocket is now grounded from human spaceflight for the foreseeable future. That means NASA may not be able to send astronauts to the station for a while, which could eventually leave the ISS without a crew."

According to the post, "NASA has been working for years on new ways to get its astronauts to the ISS," but neither the SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft / Falcon 9 configuration nor the Boeing CST-100 spacecraft/Atlas V system is currently flight ready. Both programs are expected to take their first manned flights sometime next year.

When it comes to rockets, the New York NY based Space Angels are fiscal experts for the growing private sector. As outlined in the preamble to the Q3 2018 Space Investment Quarterly Report, "in our last issue, we saw growing evidence that 2018 would be the Year of Small Launch and indeed that trend has continued in Q3 2018, with investment in Launch now exceeding $1Bln US ($1.3Bln CDN) year-to-date." The Space Angels also noted an increase in Series B rounds for satellite start-ups and China’s rapid growth in private investment for the space industry. Graphic c/o Space Angels. 

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques is currently at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan where he served as back astronaut for the current mission and continues to train for his now postponed Expedition 58-59 mission.

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer. 

Sudbury ON Based Deltion Innovations Becomes First Canadian Company to Sign MOU with Moon Express

          By Chuck Black

Sudbury ON based Deltion Innovations has become the first Canadian company to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Cape Canaveral FL based Moon Express for the collaborative development and deployment of in situ-resource utilization, space mining and science payloads for the moon.

During the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC2018) which was held from October 1st - 5th in Bremen Germany, Moon Express also signed a MOU with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Moon Express CEO and co-founder Dr. Robert "Bob" Richards is a Canadian expat entrepreneur with an extensive resume in Canada's space sector, including a stint as director of the space division at Toronto ON based Optech (now known as Teledyne Optech).

As outlined in the October 10th, 2018 Deltion Innovations press release, "Sudbury Space Mining System Developers First Canadian Company to Sign MOU with US Commercial Space Company," the MOU will allow both firms to work together to develop space mining and science payloads for future missions.

Moon Express is a privately funded commercial space company developing a family of low-cost robotic spacecraft dedicated to collapsing the cost of lunar and deep space access for science, exploration and commerce.

The company was most recently profiled in the October 5th, 2018 post, "Moon Express and Blue Origin are Bringing Jobs to Florida."

Deltion Innovations is a privately owned Canadian mining equipment design company which designs and develops unique solutions for terrestrial mining and space mining, specializing in small efficient lightweight systems and extreme environments.

Deltion was last profiled in the April 30th, 2018 post, "NASA Resource Prospector Cancellation "Disappointing" Says Deltion Innovations CEO Boucher."

“This is a very important milestone for Deltion,” stated CEO Dale Boucher. “This is an opportunity to provide a more balanced suite of capabilities for lunar exploration and lunar space mining. It provides a defined platform for launch, cruise, orbiting, landing and potential surface hopping allowing us to offer more complete technical solutions for lunar science and lunar prospecting.

According to Boucher, "These capabilities are absolutely critical for early stage mining exploration and for in-situ resource utilization on the lunar surface. This collaboration will not only facilitate lunar mining activities at the early exploration stage of the mining cycle, but will also allow us to pretest later stage mining activities such as excavation and mining infrastructure buildup.”

“We are very happy that Deltion is our first Canadian industry MOU,” stated Moon Express Founder & CEO Bob Richards. “We are confident that this partnership will allow Moon Express to offer services to our customers to meet their science and exploration needs, especially in the area of lunar resources.”

CSA will host Moon Express at its “Fall 2018 Industry Days” event on October 26th, 2018 to promote Canadian industry's capabilities to Moon Express.

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

Creative Destruction Lab Receives $25Mln CDN from Federal Government for AI, Start-up Infrastructure and Jobs

          By Henry Stewart

Industry Minister Navdeep Bains dropped by the Toronto ON based Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) on Tuesday, where he announced that the Federal Liberal government has provided $25Mln CDN in new funding for the organization.

Minister Bains on Periscope (a live video streaming app for Android and iOS) on October 9th, making the announcement that the CDL would be receiving new funding. To see the complete presentation, simply click on this link. Image c/o Periscope. 

As outlined in the October 9th, 2018 Government of Canada press release, "Government of Canada invests in artificial intelligence and start-up innovation across Canada," the new funding will allow CDL to:

...create and maintain 125 jobs, attract more investments in Canadian businesses, and see more intellectual property developed and retained in Canada. 

CDL's project will also involve more than 1,300 science-based ventures in a wider network across Canada over four years, and it is estimated that these ventures could create up to 22,000 new jobs.     

The CDL is a non-profit organization based at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business that "merges science-based projects with business expertise to help young companies scale up into creators of new jobs, processes and services" and acts as a seed-stage program for scalable, science-based companies.

As outlined on the CDL website, the organization has six locations in Calgary AB, Halifax NS, Montreal PQ, Toronto ON, Vancouver BC plus a US based location in New York NY. It runs a variety of tracks based on different areas of science.

Earlier this summer, as outlined in the June 6th, 2018 Rotman School of Management press release, "Creative Destruction Lab Builds the Next Generation of Space Entrepreneurs," CDL announced the launch of CDL-Space, a new program "designed for entrepreneurs building new, science-based companies in space-related markets."

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer. 

Canadian Rocket Teams Spread Their Wings

          By Brian Orlotti

The million dollar Base 11 Space Challenge, announced with much fanfare in June 2018, continues to move forward.

Adam Trumpour in an earlier incarnation, as a member of the University of Toronto Aerospace team (UTAT) in 2015. Trumpour was first profiled in the October 13th, 2014 post, "Canadian Entrepreneur Returning Rocketry to its Roots." Photo c/o Facebook.  

As part of a recent interview with the author, Base 11 Challenge safety expert Adam Trumpour discussed the final selection of the Canadian teams that will compete in the contest. Trumpour is a Canadian propulsion engineer who spends his days working at Mississauga ON based Pratt and Whitney Canada.

The Challenge promises a $1Mln USD ($1.3Mln CDN) prize for the first student-led university team to design, build and launch a liquid-fuelled, single-stage rocket to an altitude of 100 km (aka the Karman Line, the boundary between Earth and space) by the end of 2021.

The Base 11 Challenge is being organized by Costa Mesa CA based Base 11, a nonprofit science technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) accelerator, and being held at Truth or Consequences NM based Spaceport America.

The contest’s teams come from across Canada and the US and will be sponsored by a wide variety of government, academic, industry and philanthropic groups. Current sponsors include the Pasadena CA based California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Vélizy-Villacoublay France based Dassault Systemes, the New York NY based Deloitte Foundation, the Washington DC based Smithsonian Institution, Spaceport America and New York NY based Verizon Wireless.

In addition, space industry leaders such as X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis and former US astronaut/plasma engine pioneer Franklin Chang Diaz have also endorsed the challenge.

Along with its confirmed sponsors, the challenge will make use of  Vancouver BC based HeroX, a crowdfunding platform spun off from the Culver City CA based X Prize Foundation following the 2004 Ansari X Prize competition.

The Canadian contingent at the Base 11 Challenge will comprise teams from multiple universities including:

• The University of Toronto
• Concordia University
• McGill University
• The University of British Columbia
• Simon Fraser University

Trumpour made a point of highlighting the teams’ technical skill, recently demonstrated at this year’s Spaceport America Cup, held from June 20th - 24th in Las Cruces NM. McGill University’s team won the competition, while Concordia and U of Waterloo took first place in the advanced solid fuel rockets and advanced hybrid/liquid fuel rockets categories, respectively.

A driving force encouraging Canadian teams to join the Base 11 Challenge, Trumpour is also aiding in the contest’s design as a member of its safety council, conducting advanced safety training for all teams.

His eyes fixed on history, Trumpour also said that a successful launch by any of the Canadian teams will be momentous, as it will mark the first time that a Canadian liquid-fueled rocket will have reached space.

The Base 11 Challenge’s first milestone prize of $50,000 USD ($60,000CDN) for the best engineering design, safety plan, and outreach strategy will be awarded at the 2019 Base 11 Aerospace Symposium & Expo, to be held in May 2019.

Past generations of Canadian space engineers, through ingenuity and determination, forged our country’s reputation as a leader in satellites, robotics and communications. As the next generation rises to a new challenge, those pioneers can rest well knowing that the future is in good hands.

Brian Orlotti.

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Brian Orlotti is a network operator at the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), a not-for-profit network service provider to the education and research sectors.

Moon Express and Blue Origin are Bringing Jobs to Florida

          By Chuck Black

Two recent news stories note that the current commercial space renaissance is generating significant amounts of new jobs along Florida's Space Coast.

As outlined in the October 3rd, 2018 Orlando Sentinel post, "In a 'significant step,' Blue Origin is building a second facility on the Space Coast," Kent WA based Blue Origin has entered into an agreement to build a new $60Mln US ($75.5Mln CDN) testing and refurbishment center in Exploration Park, the state-run complex near Kennedy Space Center where Blue Origin is already building another $200Mln US ($258.5Mln CDN) rocket factory, set to open early next year.

According to the post:

The new testing and refurbishment complex will create about 50 jobs with estimated annual wages of $70,000 US ($90,000CDN), plus benefits, according to Space Florida’s board of director meeting agenda. The board approved Space Florida to enter into an agreement with Blue Origin regarding the facility last month.

The company, led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is building its New Glenn rocket in Florida and plans its first launch in 2020.

A second story published on the same day in the same news outlet suggests that Blue Origin isn't the only space company generating jobs in Florida.

As outlined in the October 3rd, 2018 Orlando Sentinel post, "Thanks to new funding, Moon Express plans to add dozens of new jobs on the Space Coast," Cape Canaveral FL based Moon Express has committed to build out its facilities at launch complexes 17 and 18 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Those renovations to the former United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket pads will likely create about 50 new jobs, "increasing to about 100 or more" as the company ramps up its planned Lunar mission activities, according to the post.

As outlined in the June 5th, 2017 post, "Only Seven Years after Bob Richards Left Canada, His Rover is Going to the Moon," Moon Express CEO and co-founder Dr. Robert "Bob" Richards is a Canadian expat entrepreneur with an extensive resume in Canada's space sector, including a stint as director of the space division at Toronto ON based Optech (now known as Teledyne Optech).

Richards left Canada in 2010.

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

Zoom Zoom Zoom! We're Going to the Moon!

          By Henry Stewart

The great thing about conferences, especially something as entrenched as the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC2018), currently winding down after a successful run from October 1st - 5th in Germany, is that many will use the event to run their projects up the international flagpole to see if anyone will step forward to offer funding.

This year, a surprising number have attempted to steal the thunder from Hawthorne CA based SpaceX CEO Elon Musk who, as outlined in the September 19th, 2018 post, "Japanese Billionaire Parties Around the Moon," announced last month that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and an entourage of artists would use a Falcon BFR to visit the Moon in 2023.

They've done that by making their own announcements about possible new "Moon shots" and exploration initiatives. Two even boast a Canadian connection. They include:

• Ottobrunn Germany based Airbus Space and Defence and others, as outlined in the October 1st, 2018 Orlando.com post, "Another moon shot? Airbus launches 'Moon Race' competition," which noted that, "After 50 years, humans are going back to the moon, and at this point the only question is who or which company will get there first."

As outlined in the post, this effort is composed of European and North American partners including Airbus (the lead), Mexico City based Agencia Espacial Mexicana, Kent WA based Blue Origin, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Cedex France based Vinci Construction.  

More partners are expected to join as the project moves forward.

Airbus is also working with the ESA, Boeing and others on the planned US Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G). As outlined in the September 20th, 2018 The Engineer post, "Airbus to develop concepts for moon-orbiting space station," the ESA has "asked Airbus to work on concepts for key parts of the proposed Deep Space Gateway, a major international effort to build a moon-orbiting space station." Photo c/a Boeing.

According to the October 1st, 2018 The Moon Race press release, "The Moon Race: Pioneering Sustainable Lunar Exploration," the partners will contribute to a German based not for profit limited liability corporation called "The Moon Race NPO gGmbH," which will manage a contest, called The Moon Race. The contest will target "teams worldwide including start-ups and new ventures eager to bring their technologies to the Moon surface." 

The object will be to establish partnerships and to gather the necessary funds for the project and to act as a "strategic platform for discussion and information sharing both inside the community."

Specific prizes and milestones are still to be defined and, as outlined in the October 3rd, 2018 Al-Jazeera post, "Moon missions in five years: Bezos' Blue Origin sets sights high," at least one of the corporate partners is working on "the conceptual design phase of a large lunar lander that it says will provide reusable access to the moon's surface and its resources."

• China which, as outlined in the October 2nd, 2018 Sputnik post, "China planning probes, manned missions, ultimately a base on moon - Space Chief," which "is setting ambitious goals, including exploring both lunar poles by 2030 and, further in the future, sending manned missions to the moon and establishing a permanent base there. 

According to the article, "the news comes as leaders of the US and Chinese space agencies said they were open to cooperation on research and missions."

• Bethesda MD based Lockheed Martin, a global aerospace and defence company which, as outlined in the October 4th, 2018 Physics.org post, "Lockheed Martin unveils its lunar lander concept vehicle," used IAC2018 to unveil its new "lunar lander concept vehicle is designed to carry a crew of four and be able to stay on the moon for up to two weeks."

As outlined in the article, Lockheed Martin is responding to "NASA's plans to renew the exploration of the moon and Mars in the next decade" with a package designed to shuttle between the moon's surface and NASA's proposed orbiting "Lunar Gateway," the newest name for what is more formally known as the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G).

There's no doubt the final program will be pricey. But Lockheed Martin is assuming that buckets of money will come available for future exploration sometime after the first flights of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) either occur or the program gets cancelled to free up funds, sometime after 2020. 

• Cape Canaveral FL based Moon Express and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) which, as outlined in the curt October 3rd, 2018 CSA press release, "The CSA signs an agreement with US-based Moon Express," have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to "enable Canadian firms and researchers to offer their expertise and capabilities to Moon Express (through the CSA)."

Moon Express CEO Richard and CSA CEO Laporte on October 3rd. Photo c/o ME.

As outlined in the far larger October 3rd, 2018 Moon Express press release, "Moon Express Signs Memorandum of Understanding with the Canadian Space Agency," the two organizations "will explore the possibilities of using Moon Express lunar orbiter and lander systems for potential CSA payloads and will promote possibilities for collaboration between Moon Express and the Canadian space industry and academia."

Of course, MOU's are traditionally non-binding agreements. 

As outlined in the June 5th, 2017 post, "Only Seven Years after Bob Richards Left Canada, His Rover is Going to the Moon," Moon Express CEO and co-founder Dr. Robert "Bob" Richards is a Canadian expat entrepreneur with an extensive resume in Canada's space sector, including a stint as director of the space division at Toronto, ON based Optech (now known as Teledyne Optech). 

In essence, Richards certainly has the ability to source Canadian connections even without the active support of the CSA. 

The CSA will be hosting Fall 2018 Industry Days from October 15th - 17th at the CSA headquarters in Saint-Hubert PQ, in order to promote Canadian capabilities to Moon Express and other major space companies. For Richards, it be a triumphant return to tiny Canada after almost a decade competing successfully in a far larger international marketplace.

At IAC2018, the CSA also signed MOU's with the new Australian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

• NASA and the Israeli Space Agency (ISA) as per the October 3rd, 2018 NASA press release, "NASA, Israel Space Agency Sign Agreement for Commercial Lunar Cooperation," which was signed by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and ISA director Avi Blasberger. 

Dr. Ido Anteby, the CEO of SpaceIL ,an Israeli nonprofit organization formed in 2011 to compete in the mostly defunct Google Lunar XPrize, was also present.

SpaceIL intends to continue "to work toward landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon. Together, NASA and SpaceIL will collaborate on analyzing the scientific data returned from the mission," according to the press release. 

• NASA and a bunch of other domestic and international organizations, including (possibly) Canada. 

As per the October 3rd, 2018 NASA press release, "NASA Administrator Highlights 'Moon to Mars' Events Across Agency Oct. 24." the US space agency plans to hold an online press conference and series of events on October 24th, to provide details on how NASA will prepare to first return astronauts to the Moon and then send them to Mars.

During these events, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will speak at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at noon EDT, spotlighting NASA's new Moon to Mars approach for human space exploration. 

He'll discuss the agency's plans to lead a sustainable return to the Moon, which includes the integration of U.S. companies and international partners, with the aim to use the Moon as a proving ground for the ultimate goal - sending astronauts to Mars.

Bridenstine's speech will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

The US is also pulling in a variety of international favors in order to generate the widest possible support for the program. 

For example, as outlined first in the September 18th, 2018 post, "Colorado Based Maxar/MDA Asking for $1-2Bln to Build Another Canadarm for the US LOP-G," NASA employees are working with senior members of the CSA and others to encourage the Federal government to announce funding for Canada's contribution to future US space plans just as soon as possible.

• Russia and China which, as outlined in the October 2nd, 2018 Newsweek post, "Russia and China want to Build a Base on the Moon Together," have been exploring the options for "working jointly to establish a lunar station," as a way to save money.

According to the article, recent international political pressures are slowly driving a wedge into the traditional partnership between the US and Russia, who developed a joint partnership based on their many years of working together on the International Space Station (ISS). 

Of course, this isn't the first time China and Russia have promised greater cooperation and it likely won't be the last. At some point, both nations may even decide to follow through on their pronouncements.

As a result of the 2014 Crimean crisis, Dmitri Rogozin, the director general of the russian space corporation Roscosmos, was added to an international  sanctions list by the US, Canada and the European Union (EU), and therefore did not attend IAC2018. He was replaced at the IAC2018 Heads of Agencies Plenary by Dmitry Loskutov, the head of the international cooperation department at Roscosmos.

For more on this new race to the Moon, check out future editions of the Commercial Space blog. 

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer. 

Space Science Intersecting With Science Policy and Funding in Ottawa and Germany

          By Chuck Black

While many of the public and private movers and shakers of the Canadian space industry are spending the week at the 2018 International Astronautical Congress (IAC2018) which is being held from October 1st - 5th in Bremen Germany, other Canadian scientists are working to organize their first "Day on the Hill," which will take place during the 2018 Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC2018) in Ottawa from November 7th - 9th.

This is probably a good thing given that the Ottawa ON based Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the Canadian union representing Federal and provincially funded scientists (including those working at the Canadian Space Agency), has just come out with a press release announcing that "overall funding for federal government science is in fact lower today than it was under the Harper government, in particular for research and development."

As outlined in the September 28th, 2018 PIPSC press release, "Despite public support for more funding, spending on federal science is lower today than under the Harper government, says PIPSC," while some science funding has shifted to the private sector to encourage innovation, "R&D by federal scientists has declined steeply," and  "72%" of Canadians agree “in the next federal budget, funding for federal government science programs should be restored to what it was in 2011.”

The press release also referenced Statistics Canada figures which indicated that "spending on R&D by government scientists has declined by $891Mln CDN compared to 2010/11 under the Harper government."

"While Statistics Canada figures show overall funding of government science has increased from $10.4Bln in 2015/16 to $11.3Bln in 2018/19, actual spending is projected to be $112Mln CDN lower in 2018/19 than in 2014/15," it said.

According to the press release:

The StatsCan numbers reinforce the findings of a 2017 survey of federal scientists, which discovered well over half (58%) believe their departments do not have sufficient resources to fulfill their mandates. 

The problem is particularly pronounced in the Canadian Space Agency (79%), Natural Resources Canada (64%) and even Environment and Climate Change Canada, where 60% do not feel their department has sufficient resources.

Perhaps more interaction between scientists and politicians is the solution.

As outlined in the September 28th, 2018 University Affairs post, "Scientists to meet with political leaders for a day on the Hill," a new program being launched at the annual CSPC in November will "give scientists a chance to spend a day getting to know Parliament Hill and the people who work there."

Called Science Meets Parliament, the event will allow up to 20 participants to meet with MPs and senators for informal talks and to learn about their daily business. In exchange, perhaps both sides will learn a little more about the constraints and capabilities of the other.

According to the CSPC website:

Science Meets Parliament is presented as a pilot project this year. 

We endeavour to make this milestone project an annual event that brings scientists working in Canada to Parliament Hill in order to meet with Members of Parliament and Senators, attend House and Senate committee meetings, discuss scientific research, and gain familiarity with the political process.

The CSPC initially outlined its plan to bring Scientists on the Hill in a Five-Year Strategic Plan (2018-2023), mainly as a mechanism to connect the two communities of scientists and politicians, foster dialogue, and enhance mutual understanding.

Meanwhile over in Bremen at IAC2018, things are chugging merrily along.

As per the October 1st, 2018 IAC2018 press release, "Watch the IAC 2018 Public Day Remotely Free of Charge," some of the sessions are even available online for viewing.

IAC2018 is organized by the Paris France based International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) to establish a dialogue between scientists from around the world and provide a forum for "international space cooperation."

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

Smart Cities in Our Foreseeable Future

          By Brian Orlotti

It's worth noting that many of the tools developed to generate large amounts of "actionable" Earth imaging data from the space program are also used to connect that data to practical terrestrial technologies designed to improve our life on Earth.

As outlined on the Elevate Toronto Smart Cities web page, "We are witnessing the highest levels of urbanization since World War One. With this, cities must adapt and innovate with technology to support this influx in demand. World leaders will tackle this problem by demonstrating innovative solutions to improving energy efficiency, sustainability and communication." Photo c/o Elevate Toronto.

Several local examples illustrating this, and other areas of interest relating to the concepts surrounding "smart cities," were explored during the Smart Cities track of the annual Elevate Toronto Festival, held on September 26th at the Design Exchange in downtown Toronto.

The first session, ‘Smart Cities, Same Old Blind Spots,’ was a ‘fireside chat’ between Design Exchange CEO Shauna Levy and Toronto ON based Doblin Canada's executive adviser Zahra Ibrahim. The theme of their chat was how smart city planners could minimize resistance to and improve the design of smart cities. Levy and Ibrahim stated their view that the key to achieving this is ‘inclusive design.’

The two went on to define inclusive design as incorporating all stakeholders into the design process, rather than just corporate interests or academics. In this view, urban design should be both aspirational and reciprocal. Being aspirational was defined as building public works of art as well as using artistic elements in public areas in order stimulate creative thinkers, create warmth and a shared sense of space.

Reciprocity involves bringing traditionally marginalized groups into the design process. Levy and Ibrahim used the example of Detroit, where redevelopment efforts adopted a shared governance model. Under this model, indigenous peoples were brought into the design process to foster a spirit of reciprocity as well as to dispel perceptions of the redevelopment as exploitative.

In ‘Public-Private Partnerships: Finding the Sweet Spot,’ Uber Canada public policy manager Chris Schafer discussed Uber’s partnership with the City of Innisfil ON to creative an alternative form of public transit.

The city government had done an extensive study on building tradition public transit surface bus routes but concluded that this would be both prohibitively expensive and unable to meet the needs of Innisfil’s diffuse population.

In 2017 Uber, sensing opportunity, approached the city with an innovative alternative.

The company created a custom Uberpool for Innisfil in its smartphone app, offering residents $3-5 CDN flat rate fares funded by both a $100,000CDN grant from the city as well Ontario’s municipal gas tax. Innisfil’s Uberpool is geo-fenced for travel in the Innisfil/Barrie area only.

The project was a success with both Innisfil residents as well as the city government, which has saved an estimated $8Mln CDN over traditional public transit.

The centre piece of the event, was ‘Expanding the Public Realm in the Smart City’ by Toronto ON based Sidewalk Labs director Jesse Shapins.

In his talk, Shapins outlined the vision and philosophy behind Quayside, the Smart City being planned for construction on Toronto’s eastern waterfront. Sidewalk Labs envisions Quayside as both a test-bed for innovation and an opportunity to correct mistakes made by past Toronto city planning.

Quayside, Shapins said, is designed as a ‘living room’ not a formal room, meaning not too polished or perfect. In past decades, Toronto city planning adhered to the Modernist school, resulting in a variety of diverse neighborhoods that were isolated from each other. Sidewalk Labs considers this a mistake, and Quayside is intended to remedy this by having its neighborhoods interconnected.

Shapins laid out a vision of city blocks laid out not in a traditional grid separated by streets, but connected to each other by an internal network of narrow pedestrian streets. Shapins said that this design harkens back to the layout of medieval European cities. In Quayside, these internal streets will contain public gathering spaces, playgrounds and markets.

Continuing with the theme of interconnectedness, Quayside will avoid the traditional segregation of residential, commercial and industrial zones and experiment with new building types that combine all three. Shapins argued that this will make Quayside’s neighborhoods more compact and walk-able, doing away with long commutes and fostering a greater sense of community.

Quayside’s buildings will incorporate simple, low-cost systems to make outdoor spaces usable year round, i.e. retractable canopies to shield people from wind and rain. Shapins also showed a modular pavement system which will come in three types: heated (for melting ice/snow), dynamic (with built-in LED lights) and green zones (trees and other vegetation).

For his final topic, Shapins unveiled Sidewalk Labs’ plans for enlarging and extending the Jarvis Street Slip. Currently used by freighters delivering sugar cane to the Redpath Sugar Refinery at Queen’s Quay, Sidewalks Labs proposes extending the slip inland as far north as Parliament Street and widening it to serve as an enclosed, park-lined waterway for residents’ recreation.

This year’s Elevate Toronto once again served as a showpiece of Canadian talent and innovation. While not traditionally an innovative city, Toronto has plenty of it on the horizon. 

Brian Orlotti.

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Brian Orlotti is a network operator at the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), a not-for-profit network service provider to the education and research sectors.

GHGSat Raises $10Mln US in Series A2 Financing; Gains Access to Worlds Largest Oil and Gas Customers

          By Chuck Black

According to Montreal PQ based GHGSat CEO Stéphane Germain, the most important takeaway from the recent announcement that his firm had raised US$10Mln US ($13Mln CDN) in Series A2 financing in a deal led by the London UK based OGCI Climate Investments, was to note that it provided "access to the world's largest grouping of oil and gas companies interested in the transition to a lower carbon future."

Germain spoke with this blog earlier in the week.

OGCI is the billion dollar investment arm of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) a voluntary, CEO-led initiative composed of approximately a dozen of the world's top oil and gas companies. OGCI was "created to pool knowledge and collaborate on action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions" according to the OGCI website.

The latest funding also included financial backing from Houston TX based Schlumberger (the world's largest oilfield services company), the New York NY based Space Angels Network and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a Montreal PQ based crown corporation.

CEO Germain. Photo c/o GHGSat.

As outlined in the September 24th, 2018 GHGSat press release, "GHGSat Raises US$10M in Financing Led by OGCI Climate Investments," the company has raised over $20Mln US ($26Mln CDN), including contributions from both the Canadian and Albertan governments.

In June 2016, GHGSat launched the the GHGSat-D next generation greenhouse gas monitoring satellite, the first commercial satellite capable of tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industrial sites

For background on this satellite, check out the November 30th, 2015 Special Report, "'All Systems Go!' GHGSat Completes Testing and is Ready for Launch."

The new funding will be used to build two more satellites similar in function to the first, plus design a new series of aircraft spectrometers and optimize existing capabilities to "accelerate efforts on the analytics required to properly assess the data," according to Germain.

The new satellites “will have an order of magnitude better performance when we're finished,” predicted Germain, while still remaining about the same size and shape as the original GHGSat-D, also known affectionately as "Claire."

As outlined in the September 26th, 2018 Scientific American post, "Private Company Plans to Launch More Greenhouse Gas-Detecting Satellites," GHGSat's target market includes oil and gas companies, which can use satellite reports to monitor leaks from refineries, wellheads and lengthy pipeline systems.

GHGSat is also working with a branch of the Australian government to pinpoint leaks from coal mines and has another contract to identify methane and carbon dioxide leaks from large hydroelectric dams operated by Hydro-Québec.

The company also maintains contacts with the New York NY based Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group working on its own MethaneSAT program and the European Space Agency (ESA), which launched the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite in October 2017.

One of the instruments on board the Sentinel-5 is the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), which, although its mission is scientific and not commercial, performs a similar function and has a much larger field of view.

As series of Earth observations from GHGSat-D, the first operational satellite from GHGSat, also known as "Claire." As outlined on the GHGSat "Observations of Methane Emissions from Coal Mines" webpage, measurement noise "can make it difficult to detect methane point sources from a single observation, but temporal averaging of multiple observations reduces the noise. We find that aggregating data from ten to twenty GHGSat-D overpasses reveals strong time-averaged plume signals from three coal mines. Once these plumes are detected, we use two methods to estimate the corresponding source rates: one based on the observed integrated mass enhancement (IME) and another based on the average cross-sectional flux." Photo's c/o GHGSat.

But GHGSat isn't just a scientific venture. It's using scientific tools to solve a series of practical and immediate problems.

Germain knows that leaks from refineries, wellheads and lengthy pipeline systems are both expensive to clean up and costly from an ecological perspective. Oil and gas companies are actively searching for solutions.

According to Germain, "we now have access to the worlds largest customers and, through their membership in the OGCI, we now also have access to their procurement people. We're well on the way to scaling this company."

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

Thales Joins the Maxar/MDA "DontLetGoCanada" Coalition

          By Henry Stewart

The Toronto ON based regional office of Paris France based Thales Group, one of Canada's larger and more noteworthy aerospace subcontractors, has joined the MAXAR/MDA dominated "Don't Let Go Canada" coalition, according to the coalition website.

As outlined most recently in the August 2nd, 2018 post, "Airbus Competing Against Thales/ Maxar to Design and Build the 117 Satellite Telesat Constellation," both Maxar and Thales are already working together to access subcontract work from Ottawa ON based Telesat for its proposed low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.

They're competing against Fort Erie ON based Airbus Canada for the final contract and Telesat's decision is expected over the next few months. Neither Telesat nor Airbus has so far joined the Maxar/MDA coalition.

By signing up, Thales joins Mississauga ON based Honeywell Canada, Mississauga ON based Magellan Aerospace, Brampton ON based MDA (a subsidiary of Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies) and approximately twenty seven other organizations. 

Other new corporate members include Montreal PQ based Maya (a player in the growing "artificial intelligence" field), Lively ON based Mafic Studios (a 3D animation facility specializing in scientifically accurate images), Sherbrooke PQ based NGC Aerospace, stealth rocketry start-ups Reaction Dynamics and Space Horizon, Toronto ON based Skywatch and Kanata ON based Space Strategies Consulting Ltd. (SSCL).

The newly joined clubs and associations include the Toronto ON based Canadian Astronomical Society, the Montreal Student Space Associations, Montreal PQ based Space Concordia (a student society at Concordia University), the Canadian chapter of the International Space Generation Advisory Council (a US based but global non-profit (US 501(c)3) organisation which aims to represent university students and young space professionals), the Calgary AB based Student Organization for Aerospace Research (the University of Calgary’s "foremost student-run high altitude research club"), the Canadian chapter of the Plano TX based Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) Rocket Club.

Airbus also has connections to the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G). According to the September 20th, 2018 Airbus press release, "Forward to the Moon: Airbus wins ESA studies for future human base in lunar orbit," The European Space Agency (ESA) has "commissioned Airbus for two studies for possible European involvement in the future human base in lunar orbit." Graphic c/o NASA.

As outlined in the September 18th, 2018 post, "Colorado Based Maxar/MDA Asking for $1-2Bln to Build Another Canadarm for the US LOP-G," the coalition was created earlier this month to: 

• Encourage the Federal government to develop a "long-term space strategy." 

• Increase Federal spending for the domestic space industry.

• Lobby the Federal government to provide up to $2Bln CDN to Maxar/MDA over a period of up to twenty years to fund a "third-generation Canadarm" for NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G).

The lobbying is being done to coincide with the Federal government's annual pre-budget consultation process. 

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer. 

A Proposed New Hypersonic Flight Test Bed from Stratolaunch Systems

          By Brian Orlotti

Seattle WA based Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, the aerospace firm founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has announced that it is exploring the development of a series of rocket planes that would serve as a testbed for hypersonic flight.

As outlined in the September 20th, 2018 Geek Wire post, "Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems lays out a roadmap for hypersonic rocket planes," Stratolaunch senior technical fellow for hypersonics Stephen Corda presented a concept study detailing a delta-wing uncrewed testbed aircraft called Hyper-Z at the 22nd American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies conference, which was held on September 19th - 22nd in Orlando FL.

Called the Hyper-Z, the proposed rocket plane would feature a hydrogen-fueled rocket engine as its main propulsion system, but could also be equipped with an air-breathing engine, such as a scram-jet. The craft could achieve a maximum speed of Mach 11, or a maximum altitude of 477,000 feet.

Hyper-Z would be launched from Stratolaunch, the company’s massive twin-fuselage carrier aircraft, currently the world’s largest with a wingspan of 385 feet. The Stratolaunch is presently undergoing ground tests at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port, with its maiden test flight expected within the next few months.

Stratolaunch made its public debut in December 2011. The company was founded by American business magnate Paul G. Allen and Mojave CA based Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, who had previously collaborated on the creation of SpaceShipOne.

The company hopes that the Hyper-Z will make hypersonic flight accessible to universities small business, and other interested parties. The craft would serve as the first in a line of rocket-powered vehicles, including a crewed orbital space plane that the company has dubbed ‘Black Ice.’

Though Stratolaunch has not made a formal decision to build the Hyper-Z nor given a timeline, the path is being prepared with the proposed building of a subscale version called Hyper-A. This precursor vehicle would be slightly bigger than the US Air Force’s Boeing-built X-51 Waverider aircraft, which made a record-setting hypersonic flight in 2013. The Hyper-A is designed to fly beyond Mach 6 and could potentially reach Mach 7.7.

Stratolaunch has already performed low-speed wind tunnel tests of the Hyper-Z design, and high-speed wind tunnel tests are to begin this fall. While no timeline has been given for Hyper-Z’s development, the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft is expected to require 1.5 to 2 years of flight testing before becoming operational. This would mean no flights of the Hyper-A could take place before 2020.

Hypersonic flight holds the civilian promise of vastly reduced global flight times as well as cheaper space launches, but will have substantial military applications as well and the program will likely need to receive initial funding from military sources.

Should Stratolaunch scrape together enough money to proceed with the Hyper-Z, both civilian and military requirements will need to be met.

Brian Orlotti.

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Brian Orlotti is a network operator at the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), a not-for-profit network service provider to the education and research sectors.

With Stock Prices Rising, A New Board, New CEO and Secured Funding, UrtheCast Might Be Moving Forward

          By Chuck Black

Vancouver BC based UrtheCast is moving quickly to make up for lost time and (hopefully) remind the country that the private sector can also fund and execute complex space focused projects.

According to the January 3rd, 2018 Cantech Letter post, "Urthecast has 264% upside, Clarus Securities says," the stock market was betting big on UrtheCast. But in March 2018, its stock fell through the floor, loosing almost half its value on March 8th (from $0.98 CDN to $0.55CDN) and slowly dropping under $0.30 CDN per share over the next several months. As outlined in the June 26th, 2018 post, "UrtheCast Shareholders Endorse the New Board," the new board and CEO, ex-MDA president Don Osborne, are hoping to generate a turn around, or at least some signs of life, before the next financial reporting period, sometime this fall. Graphic c/o UrtheCast.

As outlined in the September 20th, 2018 UrtheCast press release, "UrtheCast Announces the Signing of New US$25M Contract for UrtheDaily Constellation," UrtheCast:

...has signed a binding contract for $25Mln US ($32.5Mln CDN) to provide data from the Company's planned UrtheDaily™ Constellation to a long-established commercial Earth observation operator and value-added services provider on the Indian subcontinent. The contract will provide UrtheCast US$5Mln ($6.5Mln CDN) annually over the first five years of UrtheDaily™ operations...

This latest contract, when added to revenue acquired from the acquisition of the North Vancouver BC based Geosys Technology in August 2018, is expected to bring UrtheCast's total contracted revenue backlog to over $300Mln CDN, according to the press release.

And, while $300Mln doesn't compare to the billions of dollars of backlog commonly reported by large telecom companies like Ottawa ON based Telesat or Westminster CO based Maxar Technologies, its a good start.

As outlined in the August 2nd, 2018 Ottawa Business Journal post, "Ottawa-based Telesat adds new contracts amid disappointing Q2," Telesat reported a $3.8Bln CDN backlog for its most recent quarter. As outlined in the July 31st, 2018 Maxar press release, "Maxar Technologies reports second quarter 2018 results, declares quarterly dividend," Maxar reported a backlog of $3.05Bln US ($3.95Mln CDN) as of June 30th, 2018.

Revenue backlog is the value of contracted revenue that has yet to be recognized. Its a useful measurement of the future strength of a company.

The three revenue generation windows for Urthecast as per the January 9th, 2018 Seeking Alpha post, "UrtheCast: 3 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back," which stated that "UrtheCast has steadily improved its business stability throughout its corporate history," and praised the 2015 UrtheCast purchase of Boecillo Spain based Deimos Imaging. As outlined on the UrtheCast website, the UrtheDaily Constellation is a planned "global coverage constellation aiming to acquire high-quality, multispectral imagery, at 5-m GSD, taken at the same time, from the same altitude every day." As outlined on Gunter's Space page listing for Urthedaily, the constellation, "planned for launch in 2020, will be capable of scientific-grade quality, multispectral imagery, high-resolution, targeted specifically at geoanalytics applications. The satellites have a 5 m ground resolution with a 360 km swath width." Graphic c/o Seeking Alpha.

In anticipation of the new order, UrtheCast stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) rose substantially last week.

As outlined in the September 22nd, 2018 Press Oracle post, "UrtheCast (UR) Shares Up 43.8%," UrtheCast stock prices:

...shot up 43.8% during trading on Thursday (September 20th). The company traded as high as 0.23 CDN and last traded at $0.23 CDN. 

523,490 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 20% from the average session volume of 436,979 shares. The stock had previously closed at $0.16 CDN...

The stock price eventually settled down at $0.20 CDN per share, up from $0.16 CDN, where it currently seems to be hovering.

As outlined in the June 26th, 2018  post, "UrtheCast Shareholders Endorse the New Board," the company has recently approved a new board and a new CEO. The appointments were considered by the broader investment community to be "a vote of confidence" on UrtheCast's future prospects, according to sources.

The next formal quarterly investor report is expected in November.

Chuck Black.

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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.

Update on the Maxar/MDA Billion Dollar Campaign for Next-Gen Canadarm Funding

          By Henry Stewart

Brampton ON based MDA Space Missions (a subsidiary of Westminster, CO based Maxar Technologies) is moving forward with its controversial campaign to lobby the Federal government to provide up to $2Bln CDN over a period of up to twenty years to fund a "third-generation Canadarm" for NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G).

The campaign, currently being pushed by Maxar/MDA with the assistance of senior members of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Aerospace Industry Association of Canada (AIAC) space committee and others, is wrapped around a suggestion that funding a new Canadarm would insure Canadian astronaut access to the LOP-G in much the same way the the earlier generations of Canadarms provided Canada's entrance fee into the International Space Station (ISS).

A subtext of the main plan seems to be that funding a major, international program would also re-establish Canada's traditional role as a player in the international space industry. New opportunities (such as on-orbit satellite servicing) would then open up for Canada, which would once again have the luxury of picking and choosing programs which could be crafted into a functioning and workable "long-term space plan."

The first problem with that strategy is that long-term space plans, beginning with the first one, "Upper Atmosphere and Space Programs in Canada by J.H. Chapman, P.A. Forsyth, P.A. Lapp and G.N. Patterson, which was written in 1967, have traditionally been focused around domestic concerns, not international opportunities.

The second problem, as outlined in the September 18th, 2018 post, "Colorado Based Maxar/MDA Asking for $1-2Bln to Build Another Canadarm for the US LOP-G," is the publicly perceived pressure being quietly placed on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government by Maxar/MDA, NASA and the US to announce support for the LOP-G and funding for another Canadarm program as quickly as possible. The pressure for an immediate solution makes it difficult to properly assess the costs and benefits of the proposal.

The third problem is that most of the money initially allocated for the LOP-G goes to Maxar/MDA which has promised a wonderful, but surprisingly vague, future of "unicorns and rainbows" for all organizations willing to support its plan. This promise doesn't sit well with many Maxar/MDA supporters who would like a little more detail on how all that new Federal funding will help to build out a "balanced program," where everyone receives a fair share of the Federal pie. 

The fourth problem with this strategy is that no real Canadian work on a "next generation Canadarm" has been undertaken in Canada since 2013 when the last large chunk of Federal funding for the program ran out. Five years is a long time in robotics.

Now that the general interest presentation kicking off the "Don't Let Go Canada" campaign is out of the way, the focus has changed to more business and political focused arenas.

On Tuesday, September 25th, 2018, MDA group president Mike Greenley and business manager Holly Johnson will be giving a presentation on "Securing Canada’s Place in Space," in Ottawa ON. The presentation will launch the Canadian Club of Ottawa's fall season.

On Tuesday, October 16th, 2018, the Canadian Global Affairs Institute will be presenting a full day event titled, "Ready for Launch: Preparing Canada for a Future in Space." The event will also take place in Ottawa ON, which will make it really convenient for all those politicians which Maxar/MDA are hoping will attend.

Speakers include Greenley, former Canadian Space Agency (CSA) president Mac Evans, Federal transport minister, ex-astronaut and ex-CSA head Marc Garneau (who will serve as keynote speaker), Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg, Honeywell Aerospace senior director of space payloads Marina Mississian, current CSA head Sylvain Laporte, Space Advisory Board (SAB) chair Lucy Stojak and quite a number of others.

Editors Note: It looks like the Federal government SAB website has gone offline. Here's hoping that the loss of the public access to the information collected by the SAB during its deliberations last spring is an accident and not a political statement on what the Federal Liberal government thinks of current SAB efforts.

Of course and as outlined in the March 8th, 2018 post, "Space Advisory Board Chair Admits Disappointment over Budget but Promises to Continue to Support Space Sector," it's well known that the SAB doesn't think all that highly of the government. 

That's part of the reason why SAB members are involved in the current Maxar/MDA effort and maybe those feelings are mutual. As always, we'll update this story as new information becomes available.

September 21st, 2018 Editors Note: Looks like the SAB website is back online but at a new location. It's now at http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/082.nsf/eng/h_03983.html. It used to be at the slightly different http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ad-ad.nsf/eng/h_ad03983.html.

The future of the the Federal Space Advisory Board (shown here with innovation minister Navdeep Bains in February 2018, just before the 2018 Canadian Federal budget was announced) seemed a lot sharper when this photo was taken than it does today. Photo c/o Canadian Space Society.

Meanwhile, back on Parliment Hill the budget process will continue and will culminate sometime around March 2019, when the next Federal budget will be released.

While Maxar/MDA hasn't been called to present in person during the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2019 Federal Budget, that doesn't necessarily mean that any final decision has been made.

Stand by for adventure.

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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer.