Nano2Sol by Marc Boucher

Scott Deveau of the Globe and Mail is reporting today that Cape Breton, yes, Cape Breton could be the site of a Canadian spaceport joining other newly announced wannabe spaceports in the Mojave, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Australia, Bharain and yes even Singapore. From the article …

PlanetSpace, a consortium of international companies and stakeholders, have announced a “team agreement” with the province of Nova Scotia and are in talks with the Canadian Space Agency that would see Cape Breton become the launching site for Canada’s first commercial manned space program.

They claim they can get their first suborbital flight launched by 2008 and first orbital flight by 2010. I wish them luck. Oh, and why are they doing this in Cape Breton you ask? A good question it is too.

It’s because it’s on the same latitude as the Russian space station, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which supplies many of the parts for the International Space Centre and is better positioned to save fuel flying to the site than the Kennedy Space Centre. NASA is intending to put out contracts for those wishing to fly there by 2010.

PlanetSpace though has their head office in Chicago, not a very Canadian city the last time I looked, but a great city none the less. Oh and you remember the Canadian Arrow, one of the entries in the X Prize, well Geoff Sheerin from the Canadian Arrow team is the President and CEO of PlanetSpace. Joining him in this venture is a MirCorp founder Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria.

Peter Rakobowchuk of Canoe is reporting that Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk could begin a 3 month stay on the International Space Station in Dedcember 2007. If true it would be great for the Canadian program which is in flux right now. And with so few spots available on the space station you have to wonder why the US is willing to give up a 3 month slot to an international partner. Could it be payback for all the rollbacks on the space station program?