"Canada On Orbit" Gala to Celebrate Alouette 1 Anniversary and Satellite Contest Winners

A special gala evening is planned for later this month to mark a significant Canadian space historical event and the culmination of a major space contest. The “Canada On Orbit” gala dinner will mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of Alouette 1, Canada’s first satellite, launched September 29, 1962. At the gala, the winner of the 2012 Canadian Satellite Design Challenge will be announced.


The event has been organized by members of Canada’s space community to highlight and honour the pioneering efforts of the scientists and engineers who worked on the Alouette programme. Launched in 1962, Alouette was Canada’s first satellite.
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The Canadian Satellite Challenge logo. Credit: CSDC

Also at the gala dinner, the winners of the first Canadian Satellite Design Challenge will be announced.
The Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC) is a competition for university students to design and build a small, operational “cubesat” satellite which is about half the size of a shoe-box, weighing no more four kilograms (9 pounds), based on commercially-available, “off-the-shelf” components. The satellites will undergo full launch and space environment qualification, and the ultimate goal of the CSDC is to launch the winning satellite into orbit in order to conduct science research.
Prior to the Gala, several of the participating teams will have displays about their missions, including actual-size models of their satellites.
From September 24 to 28, 2012, the teams will begin the final stretch of this competition by conducting qualification testing of their satellites at the David Florida Laboratory (DFL) in Ottawa. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will host a media event for the qualification testing on Friday, September 28th.
Participating Universities include:
Carleton University (Ottawa, ON)
Concordia University (Montreal, QC)
Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS)
Queen’s University (Kingston, ON)
Royal Military College of Canada (Kingston, ON)
The University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB)
The University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)
The University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB)
The University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK)
The University of Victoria (Victoria, BC)
The University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON)
York University (Toronto, ON)

About Randy Attwood

Amateur astronomer, astrophotographer, space exploration historian. Executive Director, The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada / Publisher - SkyNews magazine.

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