SpaceQ Space news and analysis.
Canadian Space Agency president Sylvain Laporte was in Washington yesterday to speak at the Space Transportation Association and meet NASA officials. During his luncheon talk he stated Canada is considering accelerating its schedule in contributing to NASA’s lunar gateway.
Specifically, Laporte stated, and reported by SpaceNews, that “we’ve been in a lot of discussion with our NASA colleagues in terms of how can Canada help the U.S. be successful. If we were to accelerate the Canadarm program to 2024 or 2025, are there benefits for the American program going forward? We are at that stage now of discussing the details of that.”
SpaceQ first reported that NASA’s Artemis program initial goal as stated by the Trump administration of landing American astronauts on the moon by 2024 didn’t need Canada’s AI powered robotic arm known as Canadarm3 for the revised goal. NASA however told SpaceQ it could use the arm as soon as it’s available. A leaked NASA chart indicates the Canadarm3 as a contribution set for 2027.
Canada committed to NASA’s lunar gateway program before the Trump administration changed the program.
