For more information on our programs, services, or investor opportunities contact us. When a recent Hollywood biopic about Neil Armstrong, First Man, elected not to show the U.S. flag-planting in favour of celebrating the universality of the lunar achievement, Aldrin and President Donald Trump condemned the omission, with Trump complaining “when you think of Neil Armstrong and when you think about the landing on the moon, you think about the American flag.”.

In 2008, the Conservative-led federal government blocked the sale of its space unit to an American aerospace and defence company called Alliant Techsystems, saying it was not in Canada’s interest. With major global powers and private companies rushing into space for military or business reasons, shouldn’t Canada’s space strategy be largely focused on our national interests — in security, communications, climate change, economy — while continuing to champion space as a global commons?

Both animals wear astronaut helmets with their mouths open as if they’re belting out support for more funding for a space program. The company was co-founded by UBC engineering graduate and former UNBC Chancellor John S. MacDonald and Vern Dettwiler in 1969. “If Canada does not step forward soon, another country will seize the opportunity.” Visitors were directed to sign two petitions to pressure the federal government to create a new space strategy and commit to Canadarm 3. presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution Earlier last year, Greenley and MDA associates, including lobbying lead Leslie Swartman, a former high-ranking Liberal political staffer, met with Trudeau, the Prime Minister’s Office and Bains to advocate for “Canada to participate and share in international space programs that may bring work that MDA could bid for” among other topics. In the pre-2019 budget consultations last October, MDA’s Canada head Mike Greenley made a submission on behalf of his company to the federal finance committee. When India sent a low-cost spacecraft to orbit Mars in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “The success of our space program is a shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation. “Canadians care about the Canadarm. If you have concerns related to your privacy please contact us at info@thetyee.ca. Indeed, corporations long have wrapped themselves in national flags to sell products, even as globalization increasingly strains their claims. “Over its 50-year history, MDA has grown from a B.C.-based start-up into a world-class space technology company and an anchor of Canada’s space program,” said John Risley, the Halifax billionaire who founded Clearwater Fine Foods and is a principal with investor Andrew Lapham in Northern Private Capital. Its Reddit account u/DontLetGoCanada frequently shared patriotic posts about Canada’s achievements in space to drum up support from online space nerds. Companies in this story: (TSX:BMO, TSX:BNS, TSX:SEC, TSX:MAXR), Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. In a separate news release, Maxar CEO Dan Jablonsky said the Westminster, Colo., company will use proceeds from the sale to reduce debt and make growth investments in its core areas of Earth intelligence and space infrastructure. To order copies of I sat glued to my screen watching Navdeep Bains, the federal minister of innovation, science and economic development, launch Canada’s new space strategy in front of a room full of starry-eyed grade school students. But what was more perplexing was why Canada’s space strategy centred on building a robotic arm for NASA. Consider the nationalist emotion sparked by the sight of American astronaut Buzz Aldrin planting and saluting an American flag on the first moon landing.

But when the product is a costly, taxpayer-funded outer space infrastructure project, I can no longer exercise my individual agency and must trust our politicians to make the hefty spending decision on behalf of all of us. The Economist dedicated an article to the photo, noting that “the tactic of fairly ham-fisted airbrushing used here seems more reminiscent of North Korean propaganda posters than of Western democracies’ typical PR efforts.”, Other governments have noticed the way space exploration proves a potent advertisement for patriotism.

E-mail addresses are only used for the purposes of Tyee-related correspondence or comment moderation. When it comes to vying for Canadian federal funds, MDA, not Maxar, is the company making the pitch — and it’s a relentless appeal to Canadians’ patriotism.

While the blurry image of Bains explaining gravitational orbits was hardly as dramatic as the moon landing, it was still an exciting announcement for Canada.

TORONTO - The company that built the robotic Canadarm for the U.S. Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs is returning to Canadian ownership in a $1-billion deal announced Monday. Applications accepted on a rolling basis. The beaver-branded retailer Roots celebrated Canada’s 150th birthday with a global campaign praising Canadian’s apparent history of being “nice,” while persuading consumers to buy red flannel shirts. When I first heard the announcement, I thought NASA’s plan to colonize two celestial bodies with no oxygen and hardly any gravity was a bit spacey. “The centrepiece of the space strategy [is] that Canada is going to the moon,” declared Bains. In 1969, Canada was invited by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to participate in the Space Shuttle program. Canadarm, Canada's most famous robotic and technological achievement, made its space debut on the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-2) on November 13, 1981. One of its four key recommendations was for “the government [to] provide $1-2 [billion] over the next 20 years, starting in Budget 2019, to fund a third generation Canadarm.”, Greenley went on to cite Canadian’s patriotism to justify the request.

In 1975, NASA and the Canadian National Research Council(NRC) signed a memorandum of understandin… This was the first national space strategy released in over a decade. Last year, with a coalition of other space interest groups, MDA led a well-funded lobbying campaign called #DontLetGoCanada designed to tap into national pride. MDA argues this will yield a job windfall for Canadians: “10,000 person-years of employment,” most of them based in this country. Modern India must continue to be a world guru.”. At the time what that participation would entail had not yet been decided but a manipulator system was identified as an important component. What Is Canadarm? The basic Canadarm setup consists of a manipulator robot arm, a display panel with hand controllers and a controller interface unit.