Viewing cable 06MONTREAL616, Visit of NASA Deputy Administrator Dale to the

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INFO RUCNCAN/ALCAN COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MONTREAL 000616 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SECSTATE FOR WHA/CAN, WHA/PD, DS/IP/WHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TSPA CA
 
SUBJECT: Visit of NASA Deputy Administrator Dale to the 
Canadian Space Agency 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: On May 23, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana 
Dale and NASA Assistant Administrator Michael F. OBrien 
met with the Acting President of the Canadian Space Agency 
(CSA) Carole Lacombe and a team of CSA experts to discuss 
current and future areas for U.S.-Canadian space 
cooperation. Embassy Ottawa EMIN Brian Mohler and ConGen 
Montreal Econ officer Anne Coleman also attended the 
meeting. Ms. Lacombe gave an overview of the CSAs mission 
and operations, underscored the importance of the U.S. as a 
partner for the CSA, and spoke about the importance of 
encouraging grass-roots level support for space 
exploration. She anticipates getting Canadian cabinet 
approval in June to allow CSA to negotiate a space 
framework agreement with the U.S. Deputy Administrator 
Dale reassured her Canadian counterparts about the strong 
U.S. commitment to the International Space Station, and 
expressed the need to continue a dialogue about space 
exploration with Canada and other international partners. 
End summary. 
 
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Canada pursues niche expertise in space science 
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¶2. (U) The CSA, created in 1989 as an agency of the 
Canadian government, reports to Minister of Industry Maxime 
Bernier. It has its headquarters in a Montreal suburb, 
runs a testing and integration facility in Ottawa, and has 
offices in Ottawa, Washington, Paris, and Houston. The CSA 
contracts nearly three quarters of its C$300 million annual 
operating budget to industry and academia. With such a 
modest budget, the CSA focuses on developing expertise in 
niche markets of space exploration, such as the human 
adaptation to the space environment, robotics, and 
automation. Canada also pursues international partnerships 
to help it leverage its niche expertise with the United 
States, Europe, Japan, Russia, and India, among others. 
With 7000 employees and C$2.9 billion in annual revenues, 
the Canadian space sector is dispersed throughout the 
country, and is comprised mostly of small and medium-sized 
enterprises. 
 
¶3. (U) Ms. Lacombe noted that she wished to explore how the 
use of Canadian technology in niche fields could further 
support U.S. space activities. The Canadian-developed 
program RadarSat offers the technology to take surface 
images through clouds, detect oil spills by changes in the 
roughness of the ocean surface, and measure hurricane wind 
speed at ground level rather than at airplane-height. 
CloudSat, a joint NASA-CSA program in which radar slices 
through clouds to assess their vertical structure, has 
revolutionized the observational capacity from space, and 
demonstrated the impact of U.S.-Canadian space cooperation. 
 
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The Conservative Government and Space Prospects 
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¶4. (U) Ms. Lacombe said that the recent election of a 
minority conservative government had impacted the 
importance space exploration would be granted on the 
Canadian governments agenda. While she acknowledged that 
the Harper governments current efforts mostly focused on 
delivering the priorities presented during the recent 
election campaign (in which space exploration was not an 
issue), she stated that the CSA is seeking Industry 
Minister Maxime Berniers support for space investments. 
She noted that the fact that Minister Bernier hails from 
Quebec might also make him more open to strengthening a 
government institution headquartered in his home province. 
At the same time, Ms. Lacombe noted that the CSA would need 
to create a case for participating in space research with 
the Canadian government. CSA expects shortly to receive 
Cabinet approval to conclude a framework agreement with 
the U.S. that will allow it to pursue international 
cooperation in space exploration without needing 
parliamentary approval for individual projects. This 
should brighten prospects for the ease of future U.S.- 
Canadian space cooperation. 
 
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Future prospects for US-Canadian space cooperation 
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¶5. (U) Ms. Lacombe noted that the CSA (including the space 
industry and its associated research community) remains 
interested in participating in space exploration and that 
Canada fully supports the International Exploration 
Workshops on returning to the Moon. Affirming that NASA 
 
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is our most important partner, Ms. Lacombe noted that 
Canada has strategic capabilities in the field of space 
research and that its interactions with NASA over the near- 
term would aid its efforts to secure more political 
engagement and budget commitments towards further space 
exploration. She raised the possibility of using lessons 
from the existing International Space Station as a starting 
point for future exploration(s). She speculated that 
further engagement and investments on Canadas part would 
be likely to materialize were Canada able to attain a 
meaningful, visible, and sustainable role in space 
exploration, and that the U.S.-Canada Framework agreement, 
once approved, would make future space cooperation easier 
to pursue. Ms. Lacombe stated that grass roots support for 
the Vision for Space Exploration would be crucial in 
attaining future government support and continuing 
momentum. 
 
¶6. (U) Deputy Administrator Dale assured her CSA 
counterparts of the USGs strong commitment to the 
International Space Station and the importance of the 
mutually beneficial partnership of U.S.-Canadian space 
cooperation. She noted the success of the recent 
exploration strategy workshop. Members of the workshop 
inquired about how governance of lunar territory would 
operate, wondering whether an Antarctic model would be 
used. Deputy Administrator Dale noted that the presence of 
more traditional and less traditional partners would make 
certain governance structures more difficult to implement 
in space exploration. She affirmed the U.S. commitment to 
working with international partners to extend the human 
presence outside of the Low Earth Orbit, a feat that has 
not been accomplished in the last thirty-five years. 
 
¶7. (U) Heralding the success of the Space Exploration 
Strategy Workshop (held in April 2006), Deputy 
Administrator Dale noted that it had offered the 
possibility for space-faring nations to generate ideas 
about how best to move forward in space exploration and how 
to develop an effective strategy to deal with space efforts 
after the end of both the Space Shuttle and the 
International Space Station programs. Although she 
acknowledged that she could not make any commitments that 
would bind future administrations to space exploration 
commitments, she noted that the U.S. support for the Vision 
of Space Exploration (lunar exploration and beyond) has 
been, and would likely remain, strong. The Space Shuttle 
will be retired in 2010. Although the International Space 
Station is due for retirement in 2016, NASA is 
investigating what it would take to extend its life beyond 
that date, potentially to 2020. 
 
¶8. (U) NASAs Jennifer Troxell has cleared this cable. 
 
MARSHALL