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This weeks guest on the SpaceQ podcast is Philip Berthiaume the CEO of SpaceHorizon, a Canadian based launch services company operating out of Ottawa.The company has ambitious plans to become the first orbital launch provider in Canada.Earlier this month, the company announced it was going to resell launch services from other companies while at the same time it moves forward with developing its own fleet of rockets.Having just completed the conceptual design stage, the company’s first launch vehicle, called Launch Vehicle 1 or LV1, is planned as a small satellite launcher with an estimated development cost of $50 million.The company currently doesn’t have the resources to fully fund the development of the rocket and will be reaching out to investors mid-year.Philip says they eventually want to launch from Canada, but that they don’t necessarily want to build their own spaceport. They would rather be the user of a facility that someone else builds, such as Maritime Launch Services.Philip provides more insight

My guest today is Vinny Capezzuto, the Chief Technology Officer of Aireon.Aireon started as a partnership between Iridium and Air Navigation Service Provider NAV Canada. From its founding in 2012 to today the partnership added several other Air Navigation Service Providers including ENAV from Italy, NATS from the UK, Naviair from Denmark and Irelands IAA.Aireon has hosted Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers built into each of the 66 satellites in the Iridium NEXT constellation which had its last batch of satellites successfully launched earlier this month by SpaceX.Aireon’s space-based ADS-B will for the first time in history provide global data to track airplanes in real time. At present only 30% of the Earth is covered, primarily land area. When the system is fully operational later this year, the roughly 70% of the Earth, primarily oceanic and remote areas, that didn’t have ADS-B receiver coverage, will now be covered. For the aviation industry this is a game changer. In emergency

Most Canadians have little concept of how vast the arctic really is, think of an area larger than Europe and you'll start to get an appreciation of the scale of the area Canada needs to protect.My guest for this weeks SpaceQ podcast is Colonel (Retired) Pierre Leblanc, principal at Arctic Security Consultants.Colonel Leblanc has spent over 20 years working on Arctic security issues including commanding Canadian Forces Northern Area for an extended five year period. During that time he had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the Arctic, including formal visits to Alaska and Greenland.He is the founder of the Canadian Government Arctic Security Interdepartmental Working Group, an advisory body which comprises 11 federal departments.Today we’ll be talking about arctic security and space.I'll note that at the end of the podcast I asked Colonel Leblanc what book he had recently read that might of interest to our listeners. He suggested China and the Age of Strategic Rivalry which was produced by the C

Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. Welcome to the third and final episode of our three part Winter Series.Anyone familiar with the XPrize, and in particular the ANSARI and Google Lunar XPrize’s, will be familiar with today’s speaker. In this recent Talks at Google recorded on December 11 , 2018, the speaker is Peter Diamandis who discussed Exploring Exponential Technologies. While the talk itself is not targeted specifically at the space community, it does discuss technologies related to space. The broader ideas discussed are useful for anyone interested in innovation. Diamandis spends about 15 minutes talking to the audience before doing a fireside chat with Jack Hidary, Director of AI and Quantum at X, X being formerly known as Google X.For those who are not familiar with Peter Diamandis, he is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPrize Foundation, the world's leading large-scale incentive competition that produced, among others, the ANSARI XPrize which directly led to the founding o

Happy New Year and welcome to the second episode of our three part Winter Series talks.In this episode we hear from MDA’s Paul Fulford on Canadian Deep Space Exploration Robotics for Improved Capability, Utilization, and Flexibility on a Cislunar Habitat. The talk is introduced by Daniel Rey of the Canadian Space Agency who also provides the conclusion. The talk was part of NASA’s Future in Space Operations weekly teleconference series from mid-2018. NASA has invited Canada to participate in its next big space program, a return to the moon as part of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway program. While many in the Canadian space community support this effort, including the Canadian Space Agency, and though it is likely that Canada will participate, that final decision has yet to be announced by the government.It’s clear from the current administration in the White House and leaders at NASA that the time to return to the moon is now. And it won’t be just government going, the U.S. is pushing the commercial secto

In the first of our three part Podcast Winter Series we’ll be bringing you important news updates and talks on topics we think you’ll find interesting. Our regular interviews will resume on January 17th where we’ll discuss Canada’s Arctic with a focus on security and space.This week we have a news update from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory which features the first ever sounds of Martian winds. The sounds were recorded by NASA’s InSight lander 10 days after it safely landed on the Red planet.The panelists you’ll hear from are; Bruce Banerdt, InSight Principal Investigator, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Thomas Pike, Short Period Seismometer Science Lead, Imperial College, London; Don Banfield, Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem (APSS) Science Lead, Cornell University; and Lori Glaze, Acting Director of Planetary Science, NASA HQ.A link to the supporting visuals is available in the story that accompanies this episode on spaceq.ca. Listen in... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today’s SpaceQ podcast is panel discussion from the recent Canadian Science Policy Conference. The panel, titled "How Canada Can Create a Sustainable National Space Infrastructure” was organized by Michelle Mendes of the Space Advisory Board and features members of the Space Advisory Board. Each panel member discussed a specific area for the theme and were very articulate in getting their point across.The panel was moderated by:(2:21) Dr. David Kendall, Past Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The panelists;(6:16) Kate Howells, Global Community Outreach Manager and National Coordinator for Canada, The Planetary Society(12:18) Dr. Gordon Osinski, NSERC/MDA/Canadian Space Agency Industrial Research Chair in Planetary Geology, Western University(21:41)Dr. Michael Pley, President, Pley Consulting Inc.(29:35) Dr. Lucy Stojak, Executive Director, Mosaic(43:07) Short questions and answer session.I would like to thank to Canadian Space Policy Centre for providing us this audio r

The first results are in from the OSIRIS-REx mission and they couldn't please researchers more. Asteroid Bennu is everything they had hoped it would be based on the data obtained so far. It has also provided a few surprises.The topic of today’s SpaceQ podcast is the NASA led OSIRIS-REx mission with its ongoing multi-year mission to rendezvous, examine and sample asteroid Bennu. The acronym OSIRIS-REx stands for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer mission.The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched on September 8th, 2016. Canada is participating in the mission by providing the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter or OLA, which will create a 3-D map of asteroid Bennu’s shape along with helping with navigation. The mission will continue until March 2021 when the spacecraft will return to Earth arriving 2 1/2 years later in September 2023. At that point the sample return capsule will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and land in Utah where it will be collected and analyzed by resea

This weeks podcast consists of three short interviews recorded at the Canadian Space Summit in Ottawa on November 28 and 29.Segment 1 (03:47) - In the first segment I spoke with Ryan Anderson, a co-founder of the Satellite Canada Innovation Network, known as SatCan. It was just over a year ago that I last spoke with Ryan in episode 22 about the new SatCan project. Since then, the organization tried unsuccessfully to be a part of the governments Supercluster program. However, the concept has is not dead and the founders diligently worked towards their goals and just prior to this weeks summit did announce that they had received some funding from the government. Ryan provides an update on what’s happening at SatCan.Segment 2 (18:42) - In the second segment I spoke with Professor Gordon Osinski from Western University’s Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration about a new national educational and public outreach initiative called Space Matters.Segment 3 (29:36) - In the last I ask SkyWatch co-founder and CE

My special guest this week is William “Mac" Evans. Mac, as most people refer to him, is a thirty plus year veteran of the Canadian space program and in 2016 became a member of the order of Canada. He helped create the Canadian Space Agency, negotiated Canada’s participation in the International Space Station Program and was the longest serving president of the Canadian Space Agency.Today we’ll be talking about some of the history of Canada’s space program to better understand how we got to where we are today. We’ll also discuss space strategy and planning and what direction Mac thinks the program should take. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest today is freelance reporter Elizabeth Howell. Elizabeth is a contributor to SpaceQ along with writing for several other publications. She’s also a journalism instructor at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, Algonquin College and La Cite collégiale. Elizabeth will be heading to the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan next week to cover the launch of Expedition 58 to the International Space Station. Onboard will be Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques who will be on a six month mission. That’s one of the topics we’ll discuss this week.We’ll also discus last weeks Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa that featured prominent cabinet ministers including Transportation Minister Marc Garneau and ISED Minister Navdeep Bains. Also at the summit and key to what did or didn’t transpire, was NASA’s administrator Jim Bridenstine.Listen in.- SpaceQ special: David Saint-Jacques mission. Don't miss a single news story, video or breathtaking image.http://www.spaceq.ca/tag/david-saint-jacques/ See acast.co

Space debris is an issue that's not going away. In fact, it will get worse before it might get better. For Astroscale, an Asian startup based in Singapore and Japan, that spells business opportunity while doing humanity a favour.Astroscale has raised $102M US to date for its business case which is to help in the removal of orbital debris through the provision of End of Life and Active Debris Removal services.The company isn’t going to clean all of the debris that plagues us today, but it is taking steps to build a company that could be positioned to make an impact on future debris and possibly existing debris.Astroscale was founded in 2013 by Nobu Okada, a tech entrepreneur with no experience in the space sector. He wanted to bring his start-up mentality to the space sector and address the problem of orbital space debris.The company is working to get its first mission, ELSA-d, consisting of two spacecraft, a Chaser (~150 kg) and a Target (~20 kg), launched by 2020. According to Astroscale "the chaser is equip

Today’s podcast is a panel discussion from the recent Canadian Global Affairs Institute Ready for Launch, Preparing Canada for a Future in Space conference held in Ottawa.Officially the panel was called the Canadian Space Industry Leaders, but I’m calling it the Power Panel, as it featured David O’Connor of Magellan Aerospace, Mike Greenley of MDA, Marina Mississian of Honeywell and Dan Goldberg of Telesat. Indeed, a power panel representative of Canada’s largest space companies. Moderated by Charity Weeden, the panelists discussed the current state of the Canadian Space Program, what they think should be included in the next Space Strategy, and what they think of governments support. Magellan’s David O’Connor went as far as saying “our government has failed the country with the way its handled the space program.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is the SpaceQ podcast. My guest this week is Professor Chris Herd from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta. We’re going to be talking about the Canadian Space Agency Space Exploration Workshop held in late 2016 and the subsequent lengthy report which was recently released.The report forms the basis of what Canada is likely to do in the next 10 years in space exploration. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi, I’m Marc Boucher and this is a special episode of the SpaceQ podcast.This recording is from the Canadian Global Affairs Institute's Ready for Launch - Preparing Canada for a Future in Space conference, which was held in Ottawa on October 16, 2018.In this recording, a Fireside Chat: The New Space Age, the CBC’s Bob McDonald interviews Kenneth Hodgkins, the Director for the Office of space and Advanced Technology of the U.S. Department of State.In it, the discussion centers on the commercialization of space including how Canada is being considered an emerging launching state.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi, I’m Marc Boucher of SpaceQ and this is an episode of Short Takes. Short Takes are short interviews or short speeches with leaders in the space sector.This recording is from Friday, October 19, 2018 at the Montreal Space Symposium. In it Adam Trumpour announces the newly created Canada Rocket Innovation Challenge.Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi, I’m Marc Boucher of SpaceQ and this is an episode of Short Takes. Short Takes are short interviews or short speeches with leaders in the space sector.Last week the Canadian Global Affairs Institute hosted a one day conference, Ready for Launch - Preparing Canada for a Future in Space.The title is ironic when you consider that Minister of Transportation Marc Garneau, a former astronaut and president of the Canadian Space Agency, openly stated that Canada has been a serious space player until now. Listen in. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) is a global network for students and young professionals looking to have a greater presence in Canada.Leading the charge are Zaid Rana, a systems engineer at Concordia University, and Chantelle Dubois, an engineering student at the University of Manitoba.In this weeks SpaceQ podcast we’ll be discussing what the SGAC is, what it does for students and young professionals globally, and what the organization is planning in Canada.Listen in.Link: https://spacegeneration.org/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi, I’m Marc Boucher of SpaceQ and this is an episode of Short Takes. Short Takes are short interviews with leaders in the space sector.Earlier this week the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada announced a new initiative called Vision 2025: Beyond our Imagination. It is, in their words "an industry-led initiative to start a new dialogue between industry, government, the public, and other stakeholders that will chart a course for Canada’s future in the international aerospace sector.” Hired to lead this initiative is Jean Charest, a former federal Cabinet minister, Leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party, Québec Liberal Party leader and former premier of Quebec.SpaceQ had an opportunity to speak with Jim Quick, President and CEO of the AIAC, on this new initiative and the hiring of Mr. Charest. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

GHGSat is on a roll having raised more funds and looks to pad its lead in the commercial monitoring of global emissions from small satellites.Recently GHGSat announced it had raised US$10M in a Series A2 financing. The funds bring to $20M GHGSat has raised to date, including funds from the Alberta and federal governments.It’s also been over two years now that GHGSat’s first satellite, Claire, was launched. In that time a lot has changed politically, especially when talking about carbon taxes. What hasn’t changed is the need to monitor global emissions. And this week the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also issued a dire warning.My guest this week on the SpaceQ podcast is Stephane Germain, CEO of GHGSat. Stephane is also a member of the Space Advisory Board and he’ll provide us a brief update on the Advisory Board’s activities.As you’ll hear from Stephane, regardless of the political climate, monitoring global emissions by commercial companies like his isn’t going away, in fact, the bu