NEWS BRIEFS

SPAR WINS CONTRACT FOR SPACE STATION WORKSTATIONS

Feb.27, Brampton, Ontario - Spar today announced it has won a $30 million contract to supply workstations for the International Space Station. The workstations provide display and control functions for Station astronauts to operate the station's Mobile Servicing System and Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator. The contract is with the Canadian Commercial Corporation on behalf of NASA.

SPAR - COMSTREAM CONTRACTS

Feb.20, San Diego - Spar's subsidiary ComStream received two contracts valued at $3.1 million and $3.8 million. The first with the China National Petroleum Corporation to expand its satellite-based communications network to remote oil fields throughout China. The second, to provide an internal communication network to the Post and Telecommunication Administration of Tibet.

SPACE SCIENTISTS MEET IN OTTAWA

Canada's space physics and aeronomy community met this week in Ottawa to discuss current research and upcoming projects. A number of new initiatives were discussed including:

- ODIN/OSIRIS a joint Aeronomy/Astronomy mission with Sweden for launch in 1997

- PSMOS, a global network of ground stations for monitoring planetary scale disturbances in the upper atmosphere

- TPA, the Thermal Plasma Analyzer an instrument to be carried by Japan's Planet-B spacecraft to Mars in 1998

- HiRES, a sounding rocket payload built by scientists and students at the University of New Brunswick, to be launched in April from Wallop's Island. The payload will support measurements of the Sun's atmosphere taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft

SPACE AGENCY RECEIVES PROPOSALS FOR CONCEPT STUDIES

A number of proposals were submitted in January to the Canadian Space Agency by scientists in response to a recent announcement of opportunity. More details will follow in the next issue of can-space.

SPACE AGENCY TO GO ON-LINE SOON ?

Word has it the CSA will soon establish itself on the World Wide Web. The Agency had a temporary site in early 1995 which went off-line in November when its Informatics Group installed a firewall system to increase internal security. Since then, internal committees have been busy working out requirements and internal regulations for what the CSA will put on-line......

The Canadian Astronaut Program Office has a site at www.vir.com which has displayed the proverbial "This Site is Under Construction" since its inception in November. Nevertheless a number of groups inside CSA such as the RADARSAT program and David Florida Labs have well established and active sites.

The Canadian Space Science Program, will be on-line near the end of April.

EVENTS

SPACEBOUND CONFERENCE POSTPONED

The SPACEBOUND 96 Conference originally scheduled for Winnipeg in May has been postponed. The conference, which caters to the Canada's microgavity science community, conflicts with the upcoming Shuttle missions in May and June. Spacebound 97 will be held in May in the Montreal.

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