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Originally posted by Cowperson@Nov 2 2004, 07:55 PM
There's something missing from your stream of events though isn't there?
The NASA refusal is dated 1999 according to your links.
In 2000, Boeing, an American company, was awarded a contract to launch Radarsat-2 via a Delta rocket in April 2003 from Vandeburg Air Force Base in California. (Hey, I drove by their last year).
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First of all: Your
link is from July 2000. My
link was last updated in Novemeber of 2000.
As well, accoridng to the Canadian Space Agency in February 2004, NASA backed out and there is no mention of another company launching the satellite.
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/apoge.../01_review.asp
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As for RADARSAT-2, the CSA had a signed agreement with NASA for which was to take care of the launch of the spacecraft in exchange for the data the satellite can provide. The same agreement had been signed for the launch of RADARSAT-1, which was in fact launched by the Americans. Since then, the Canadian Space Agency has been supplying the Americans with all the data from that satellite. However, NASA has now backed away from that commitment, so Canada is faced with the cost of launching RADARSAT-2. A satellite launch is expensive—more than $100 million—so we will not be able to undertake certain new projects.
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I also can't find anything on any of the RADARSAT sites that mention NASA or Boeing as a partner. Maybe they did change their mind, but considering all the obstacles that the U.S. put up, it says a lot about the way they view us. It also doesn't change the fact that the U.S. government refused to cooperate on something that would benefit Canada because they wanted to control it. Even if Boeing manages the launch, they are a private company. I also wouldn't be surprised if they end up launching from France.