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First Annual Space Conference

CONCOM-CIADI Seminar

About 100 key players, including representatives from industry, academia and government, met at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) on Tuesday February 25th for what was billed as the country's first annual space conference. Dr. Graham Carr was invited to the event to represent Concordia University and since he had schedule conflicts on the 25th he delegated Ms. Shelley Sitahal and Dr. Robert Fews as his representatives. The space conference took place under tight budget restraints although Minister Moor said earlier in February that the Canadian Space Agency under Walter Natynczyk has plenty of money to achieve its goals. The current CSA budget is $260 million. Please find below a brief description of proceedings:

The 2012 Emerson Aerospace Review, mandated by the Government of Canada dealt with both aerospace and space, Volume 2, "Reaching Higher: Canada's Interests and Future in Space:" being the Space related volume. From the Volume 2 recommendations Canada's new space policy framework has been developed and this had been announced by Industry Minister James Moore just a couple of weeks prior to the space conference. The first presentation of the day was a summary of Canada's Space Policy Framework. You will see that Research and Development is a key feature of the policy with the promise of significant funding for research partnerships between industry and academia.

The rest of the morning session focused on presentations from several senior government officials who are in charge of the use of Canadian space assets. These included:

The afternoon session was devoted to workshops dealing with a number of themes, which included:

  • Session 1 - Commercialization See details
  • Session 2 - Innovation and key industry capabilities See details
  • Session 3 - Space exploration See details
  • Session 4 - Earth observation and satellite services See details
  • Session 5 - Government, Industry, University interaction in Space technology innovation See details
  • Session 6 - Stakeholders involvement in setting the course for Canada's space program See details



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