NEWS BRIEFS

MSAT-1 TO LAUNCH APRIL 20TH

Paris, European Space Agency - MSAT-1 is scheduled for launch April 20th at 6:36 pm EST from Kourou French Guiana. MSAT-1, owned and operated by TMI Communications, will complement a mobile Sat operated by American Mobile Satellite Corporation and currently in orbit. The satellites will provide full coverage of North American for the mobile communications market.

ANIK E-1 SUFFERS FAILURE

ANIK E-1 lost power from one of its solar array panels on March 26th. It is known that the spacecraft power system became disconnected between the solar array and spacecraft payload. However, Telesat's investigation team is still determining the reason behind the failure. The failure has resulted in a loss of more than 50% of the satellite's capacity.

STS-77 UPDATE

Preparations are under way for Shuttle flight STS-77 slated for a May 16th launch. Astronauts are scheduled for a Terminal Countdown Demonstration on April 22nd at Kennedy Space Center. STS-77 will be Marc Garneau's second sojourn into space.

PRIRODA MODULE TO LAUNCH APRIL 23 TO 26

The last laboratory module to be added to the Mir Space Station, Priroda, is currently scheduled for launch sometime between April 23rd and 26th. The module will be launched with a cargo containing the Canadian built Microgravity Isolation Mount (MIM). MIM is an apparatus built to isolate small scale vibrations caused by astronaut movement and mechanical noise. Experiments installed in the module can than operate in a "cleaner" mechanical environment.

QUEENS UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT ON MIR

During Shuttle Flight STS-76 in March the Queen's University Experiment in Liquid Diffusion (QUELD-II) was transported up to the Mir Space Station. It currently awaits there in stowage for the addition of the Priroda module, and for installation in the Microgravity Isolation Mount. NASA Astronaut Shanon Lucid is primary operator of the experiment.

CARLETON MICROSAT PRELIMINARY DESIGN REVIEW

Carleton University Aerospace Engineering students presented a preliminary design review of the "Sila" Microsat project in front of an industry audience April 2nd. Momentum is slowly building in this project and with a potential launch "piggy-back" with RADARSAT-II it will likely become Canada's first student built microsat to reach orbit.

EVENTS

PROTECTION OF MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES FROM THE LEO SPACE ENVIRONMENT

April 25 - 26 at University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies. Contact Prof. Jacob Kleiman at jkleiman@utias.utoronto.ca for more information.

43RD CASI ANNUAL CONFERENCE

April 29 - May 1, Ottawa. Contact Marie Juneau at 613-234-0191 for more details.

ESA SYMPOSIUM ON ENVIRONMENTAL MODELING FOR SPACE BASED APPLICATIONS

First announcement and call for papers for this conference was issued recently. The conference will be at ESTEC September 18 - 20. More information is available at:

  http://doc.estec.esa..nl/confere/96a09/main.html

or by e-mail from confburo@vmprofs.estec.esa.nl

CONTRACT SUMMARIES DECEMBER 1/95 - JANUARY 31/96

  Contractor  ProjectAmount
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.             $449,400
    Mission Management Office/Data Base Management
    (MMO/DBM) operations support

  Aastra Aerospace Inc.                               $417,300
    Crystallization in microgravity of proteins
    relevant to industry

  C and C Associates, Canada                          $256,800
    Services for Mobile Servicing System (MSS)
    software Independent Verification and Validation

  MPB Technologies Inc.                               $214,000
    Aquatic research facility support services

  CAL Corporation                                     $213,832
    L and C bands array proof of concept

  Optech Inc.                                         $211,770
    Spaced-based ozone DIfferential Absorption
    Lidar (DIAL) receiver system study

  Institut national de la                             $199,115
  recherche scientifique énergie et matériaux
    Processing of poled-polymer systems for
    nonlinear optics under microgravity conditions

  Com Dev Atlantic Ltd.                               $187,250
    Logistics and engineering support for phase
    C2/D of the Canadian Space Agency's (CSA's)
    thermal plasma analyzer experiment

  Array Systems Computing Inc.                        $128,361
    On board SAR processor architecture

  MPB Technologies Inc.                               $105,545
    ASAR signal distribution network mass and
    power consumption trade-off study

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