Canada, the United States, and Space

Lovell Clark was Professor of History at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.

These are major papers presented at a one-day conference at the University of Toronto in July, 1985, by experts in space science and technology employed by government and industry. There are some glowing reviews of Canada’s accomplishments and thoughtful discussions of the choices which lie ahead. A number of the papers pay tribute to the late Dr. John Chapman, who paved the way for Canada’s satellite programme (the first was Alouette I, launched in 1962) with his Ph.D. thesis on the ionosphere at McGill in 1951. The Canadian spokesmen stress the need for Canada to cooperate with the US and the European Space Agency, and a representative of the ESA at the conference echoed this need for international collaboration. There are some splendid papers by American experts, one of whom, David Williamson Jr., speculates that non-military space programmes will suffer as a result of the budget crunch and the competition of the Strategic Defense Initiative. “The purer the science, the tougher it is to get support for it.” Williamson also feels that international cooperation suffers in the meaner climate created by commercial competition and the need of military security. Professor John Kirton performs the difficult task of summarizing the divergent views, particularly on the choices confronting Canada. An appendix contains some Canadian government documents on Canada’s projects and plans in space.