NEWS BRIEFS

ASTRONAUT PROGRAM UPDATE

Canadian Astronaut Dr. Dafydd (Dave) Rhys Williams who has been in Mission Specialist training at NASA since January 1995 was recently assigned a Shuttle mission. He is slated for duty on-board STS-90, the Neurolab mission planned for March 1998.

UPCOMING INTERBALL / UVAI LAUNCH

The Russian Interball spacecraft is now planned for launch August 29th. Canada is contributing an Ultra Violet Auroral Imager to the spacecraft's suite of scientific instruments. The Interball project ran into budgetary problems after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. UVAI has been an on and off project for at least the last 9 years here in Canada. (ed : numerous people from Univ. of Calgary, CSA, Routes and CAL Corp. and others who, at one time or another, worked on this project - self included - will be elated to finally see this instrument go into operation). More information is available on the web at: http://www.space.ca/csa/str/uvai-e.html

TMI TO PROVIDE NPCS ON A NATIONAL BASIS

TMI Communications of Ottawa has been authorized by Industry Canada to provide Narrowband Personal Communications Services (NPCS) on a national basis. TMI plans to use its MSAT satellite network to extend the reach of NPCS.

RSI DISTRIBUTION NETWORK GROWS IN THE U.S.

RADARSAT International continues to expand its distribution network i3 - information integration and imaging of Fort Collins, Colorado has recently signed a license agreement to distribute RADARSAT data in the U.S. excluding to the U.S. federal government.

COM DEV FOUNDER APPOINTED

Dr. Valentine O'Donovan, Chairman and CEO of COM DEV International, has been named the next Chancellor of the University of Waterloo. O'Donovan founded COM DEV in 1974 which has since become a global leader in satellite communications technology.

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY RELATIONS CONTINUE

Jean-Marie Luton, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), met in Ottawa on July 10th to sign two Agreements between ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. The Agreements amount to a participation of $15 million (CDN) in the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) and the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems Programme (ARTES). Canada has been a "Cooperating State" member of ESA since 1979 and is the only non-European country participating directly in ESA programmes.

EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

SEDS CONTEST

SEDS-Canada invites students from grades 7-13 and undergraduate students across Canada to produce and submit an original, self- contained multimedia essay about space exploration for ready use on the World Wide Web. First prize is $200. Contest details can be found at:

http://www.seds.ca/Contest/

Contest deadline is: Friday September 27 1996. For more information contact: seds@seds.ca

LCASE CALL FOR POSTERS

The CAISU continues its series of annual conferences for university undergraduate students. The conference this year, titled Low Cost Access to Space in Education, will provide a timely focus on current issues of access to space for Canadian university and student groups. The call for Posters is due September 15th. The conference will take place November 12th in Ottawa. More information is available on the web at http://www.caisu.ca/

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