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Canada in Space

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Canada has a very active space program. In 1962 Canada became only the third nation in the world to orbit a satellite, and in 1972 Canada became the first nation to deploy its own national geostationary satellite communications network. The robot arms used by the American Space Shuttle (Canadarm) are Canadian designed and built. Canada's contributions to the ISS are not trivial. In fact, without the Canadarm2 (a major component of the Canadian Mobile Servicing System), future construction efforts on the ISS would not be possible.

Canada has an active core of trained astronauts. Eight Canadians have flown in space aboard the US Space Shuttle. There are currently three Canadian astronauts working within NASA.

To learn more about Canadian space activities, visit the Canadian Space Agency home page.


Canadian Satellites

Name Date Type Launch Location
Alouette 1 29 September 1962 Earth magnetosphere Vandenberg AFB, CA, United States
Alouette 2 29 November 1965 Earth magnetosphere Vandenberg AFB, CA, United States
ISIS-I 30 January 1969 Earth magnetosphere Vandenberg AFB, CA, United States
ISIS-II 1 April 1971 Earth magnetosphere Vandenberg AFB, CA, United States
CTS-1 17 January 1976 Communications technology Cape Canaveral, FL, United States
RADARSAT-1 4 November 1995 Radar Earth imaging Vandenberg AFB, CA, United States
MOST 30 June 2003 Space telescope Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
SCISAT-1 13 August 2003 Atmospheric observation Vandenberg AFB, CA, United States
RADARSAT-2 14 December 2007 Radar Earth imaging Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
NEOSSat
Sapphire
BRITE CA-1, CA-2
25 February 2013 Near-Earth Object Surveillance
Missile early warning
Stellar photometry
Satish Dhawan Space Centre
Sriharikota, India

(The above list does not include any commercial Canadian satellites).


Should you notice any typos, omissions, or outright errors, let us know and we'll investigate and correct them. You may do this via e-mail.


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Last updated: 24 May 2022 16:16:13.

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