What Canada is spending for its continued role in space exploration

It’s a big week for Canadian space-heads. Not only has the International Space Station just completed its 100,000th loop of the earth, the Canadian Space Agency also announced David Saint-Jacques as the country’s next representative aboard the ISS in 2018.

Canadians have played an active role since the ISS was launched in 1998, contributing the Mobile Servicing System (MSS) – a group of robo-buddies – comprised of the awkwardly named 17-metre Canadarm2; Dextre, the ISS’s two-armed robotic “handyman;” and a moveable work platform and storage facility without a cool name that just goes by “The Mobile Base” – who built the station in space, module by module

And our aspirations of space exploration have continued to pay off.

The Canadian aerospace industry contributed more than $29 billion to the country’s GDP in 2014, employing 180,000. To put that in perspective, the forestry sector contributed less at $20.81 billion, around 10 per cent of the Canada’s GDP that same year.

But how much does our continuing role in space cost?

The ISS

Although the estimated cost of Canadian participation in the MSS component of the space station was initially pinned at $800 million, as that obligation looked to hit $1.9 billion by the year 2005, the country started to sweat a little. After re-negotiations surrounding the 1994 budget, that financial commitment was reduced to $496 million on top of the $713 million already contributed putting the total closer to $1.2 billion.

Between 2015 and 2016, the Canadian Space Agency plans to spend $83.3 million on the ISS, scaling back to $78.2 million the following year and dropping down to $73.6 million between 2017 and 2018.

Despite the decline, Canada still remains engaged with the ISS.

“To secure Canada’s place in the International Space Station, Budget 2016 proposes to provide up to $379 million over eight years, starting in 2017–18, for the Canadian Space Agency to formalize negotiations with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and undertake the necessary activities to extend Canada’s participation to 2024,” according to the budget.

The Budget

From the time the CSA was established in 1990 to 1999, the agency’s budget was established on a per project basis. But in 1999, the organization was moved to a base funding model, with a fixed annual budget of about $300 million.

After slipping from $325.8 million in 2001/2002 to $285.8 million for 2012/2013, the Liberal government surprised many space aficionados by bumping the budget up to a planned $483.4 million this year.

“Canada will also continue to take part in other important international collaborations with the potential to build on Canada’s strengths and develop the space industry sector’s capabilities,” says the budget, specifically pointing to participation in the European Space Agency’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems program. Canada will contribute $30 million over four years, starting in the 2016–17 fiscal year.

And then there’s the RADARSAT-2 – the CSA satellite that crept into the news last week when a 15-year-old boy from Saint-Jean-de-Matha, Quebec asked is he could use it to verify his findings of a 4,600-year-old lost Mayan city.

The satellite is a second iteration of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) launched in 2007. For the RCM specifically, the Budget in 2010 earmarked $397 million to the CSA over five years leading up to fiscal year 2014/2015 and then allocated an additional $374.2 million over six years between 2013/2014 and 2018/2019.

The Future

Going forward, the Canadian Space Agency’s budget is looking at another haircut, shortening to $383 million for 2016 to 2017 and $322.6 million for the 2017 to 2018 fiscal year.

But with $8.7 million specifically earmarked to upgrade the anechoic chamber – used for simulating space conditions for testing large spacecrafts and instrument – at Shirleys Bay west of Ottawa in the CSA’s David Florida Lab test facility and Canada’s two active astronauts, David Saint-Jacques and Jeremy Hansen, pretty much both guaranteed spots on the ISS, don’t be surprised if the government expands Canada’s role in exploring the final frontier.