Lost in space

David Pugliese put together an excellent piece specifying how technology developed using Canadian tax dollars was sold out.

That the purchaser is American is not the point. It's that they're not Canadian.

Control of Canada's finest space technologies are going over the border never to be seen again and we're back at square one with our defense and Arctic sovereignty strategies in tatters.

--PB--

"Sometime in the next few weeks, Canada's leading space technology firm will pass into American hands and, potentially, the 'top secret' files of the Pentagon. Critics fear millions of dollars of taxpayer investment, a significant number of high-tech jobs, our Arctic sovereignty and our international reputation in space research will also vanish.
David Pugliese, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, March 09, 2008

Part 2 of a Series

By April 2007, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates had started, quietly, to shop around its space and defence assets, approaching seven potential purchasers.

On the market was the cream of Canada's space industry. Not only was the Richmond, B.C., firm offering the Radarsat-2 satellite, the most advanced spacecraft of its kind in the world, but also a host of other technologies, including the Canadarm, robot systems that could refuel satellites in orbit, and new-generation radar and optical-imaging research."