Commercial Space's Disastrous Week

A Virgin Galactic image of SpaceShipTwo in flight.

Virtually every film about the early history of the space age contains a sequence of rocket failures, including exploding Atlases, a cartwheeling Thor, and a Titan slumping back onto the launch pad. Those aging film clips were a graphic reminder that launching rockets is an unforgiving business, and even the smallest mistake can lead to catastrophe.

When America's private space industry finally got off the launch pad in the last few years, it seemed to have escaped the failures that had dogged those earlier generation rockets. These new rocket firms, sometimes referred to as NewSpace, had finally arrived, and as I reported in this blog a month ago, they took centre stage at the  International Astronautical Congress in Toronto.

That all ended last week, it appeared, when an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded a dozen seconds after its launch on a resupply mission to the International Space Station, followed three days later by the loss of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, along with the life of one of its two pilots. 

Orbital Sciences, which built the Antares rocket, has a long track record going back thirty years. Orbital has enjoyed many successes but also its share of failures. Initial reports about the failure point to Russian engines Orbital purchased and refurbished, but investigations are still ongoing. Meanwhile, the ISS was replenished by a Russian Progress freighter that was launched just a few hours after the Antares failure, and a SpaceX Dragon freighter is slated to deliver more supplies to the station in December.

The Virgin Galactic crash has not surprisingly gained more attention because of the loss of co-pilot Michael Alsbury and the serious injuries suffered by pilot Peter Siebold, along with the fact that SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry paying customers to the edge of space. More than 700 people, including Hollywood celebrities, have paid $250,000 to book a flight with Virgin Galactic.

When Sir Richard Branson set up Virgin Galactic a decade ago after the success of SpaceShipOne in the competition for the $10 million X Prize, he hoped to be flying paying customers within three or four years. Instead, testing of SpaceShipTwo and its mother ship have taken much longer than expected, and a first flight with passengers had slipped to 2015 before the accident.

Until the Halloween crash, Branson and Virgin Galactic had been criticized for excessive caution, but since then, there have been many suggestions that Virgin Galactic was pushing too hard, especially with its troublesome rocket system. These theories about its rocket have been undermined by the revelation that SpaceShipTwo broke up following an accidental deployment of wings that were supposed to slow the craft later on in flight.

As with the Antares loss, we will have to await the result of the investigation into SpaceShipTwo before reaching conclusions. 

To me, the failures were not a surprise, simply because of the unforgiving nature of rocketry and space flight, and the fact that these vehicles were built by human beings. There will be more failures in the future, and they won't discriminate between public and private builders.

There has also been some commentary about the fact that the SpaceShipTwo pilots put their lives in jeopardy in the cause of joy rides for the wealthy one per cent. While I deplore growing income disparity in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, I don't agree with this critique of Virgin Galactic.

Most super rich people waste their money on overpriced real estate, overpowered cars, gated communities, right-wing politicians, and other frivolities.

In the case of Virgin Galactic's high-priced suborbital flights, the ticket buyers are helping open space to many others who can only dream of escaping Earth. 

Today, fewer than 600 people have gone into space since the first human left Earth more than 50 years ago. After the initial enthusiasm for space flight in the Cold War, taxpayers have become increasingly reluctant to pay for ambitious space programs. 

If space is to be opened up, it will be left up to private space flight providers and to the people who can afford those expensive flights. Over time, as more people fly, even on joy rides, and demand grows for space flights, the cost of those flights will go down.

The sacrifices made by Michael Alsbury and Peter Siebold will be as important to a future where space is open to many people as those that have previously been made by the astronauts and cosmonauts who died in earlier space disasters. Hopefully the lessons learned from last week's events will quickly lead to safer and more frequent access to space.

Canada's Space Program Loses its Leader

CSA President Walter Natynczyk (left) unveils CSA commemorative coin with astronauts David Saint-Jacques and Jeremy Hansen at the recent International Astronautical Congress in Toronto. CSA photo

The Harper government is in trouble with Canada's veterans. Traditionally a constituency that supports the Conservatives, veterans are upset with major changes to their benefits, disputes over treatment of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, and ham-handed treatment by the Minister of Veterans Affairs that have created a sense of betrayal.

We are already being subjected to volleys of taxpayer-funded commercials that suggest that the Harper government is behind our veterans, but even this fix isn't working. So on Wednesday Prime Minister Harper announced that Gen. Walter Natynczyk, a former chief of staff of the Canadian Forces, is being brought in as Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs to clean up the mess.

For the last fifteen months, Natynczyk has been the President of the Canadian Space Agency, and his appointment there had raised hopes that the agency would regain direction after years of neglect by the Harper government and the Liberal government that preceded it.

As a rather small agency in the Ottawa firmament, the CSA has usually received little attention from the top levels of the federal government, regardless of who is in power.

The Harper government made a good call in 2008 when it blocked the sale of Canada's largest space contractor to an American firm, but since then the CSA has suffered under cutbacks imposed as part of the Harper government's goal of balancing the budget.

During Natynczyk's short time as president, the CSA was given a policy framework that fell short of a long-awaited new space policy, but the framework marked modest policy progress. Insiders gave Natynczyk credit for getting the troubled Radarsat Constellation program back on track.

At the International Astronautical Congress a month ago in Toronto, Natynczyk was left to deal with the fallout when the Harper government denied visas to top Russian and Chinese space officials for political reasons.

But his promotion to the sensitive post at Veterans Affairs suggests that the government was happy with Natynczyk's performance.

Luc Brûlé, who became vice-president of the CSA earlier this year after having held management jobs at the agency since 1991, has been named as interim president. Chances are, Brûlé will be filling in until after the federal election takes place next year as the CSA continues to await badly needed new policy directions.

Bringing Canadian Space Enthusiasts Together

RASC Executive Director Randy Attwood addresses the Canadian mixer at the  IAC in Toronto. Chris Gainor photo.

Conventions provide great opportunities to meet people, and the recent International Astronautical Congress in Toronto was no exception to this rule. Canada's excess of geography means that people like me who live far away from centres such as Toronto and Montreal have few opportunities to network with other Canadians who share common interests.

Having drawn more than 3,000 delegates from around the world, the IAC featured many gatherings of smaller groups, including one that brought together Canadians who support space exploration.

Some belong to professional groups such as the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute and the Canadian Space Commerce Association, or advocacy groups like the Planetary Society and the Canadian Space Society. 

As an American-based organization, the Planetary Society is focused on NASA's planetary exploration program. The Canadian Space Society is working on expanding its membership base beyond central Canada as it tries to make its voice heard in Ottawa in support of Canada's space program.

Probably the biggest space-related organization in Canada is the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, which has more than 4,500 members across the country.

The primary interest of most RASC members of course is astronomy, but many of them closely follow space exploration. The RASC has been focused on providing services for its members, and it has occasionally lobbied to support Canadian professional astronomers. But it has rarely ventured into speaking out about Canada's space program.

The Canadian mixer at the IAC was a rare occasion where members of these various groups could gather to talk about their work and their hopes for Canada's future in space.

Although it will be many years before the IAC returns to Canada, another opportunity to bring Canadian space  enthusiasts together will take place next May 20 to 24, when the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) comes to Toronto.

The ISDC is an annual event sponsored by the National Space Society, an American group that supports more and greater activities in space. The ISDC draws astronauts and top flight speakers from NASA and American space contractors. It has only once before taken place outside the United States - in Toronto in 1994.

Next year's ISDC will attract many Canadian space enthusiasts, which will permit further discussion about how to promote Canada's space program. That could include more joint activities involving Canadian space organizations. 

The recent meeting at the IAC was a "getting to know you" session, and the upcoming ISDC in May will offer a chance for more concrete cooperation between Canadian space organizations, both in making the conference a success and in working together afterwards to promote and build Canada's space industry.

Commercial Spaceflight Comes to the Fore at Toronto Congress

Model of Next Generation Canadarm at IAC 2014 inspected by group including CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen (second from right). Chris Gainor photos.

The 65th International Astronautical Congress, the third to take place on Canadian soil, will likely be remembered for marking the coming-of-age of commercial provision of human spaceflight. Sessions devoted to that topic at last week's congress at the Toronto Convention Centre were standing room only affairs in big rooms, unlike previous congresses, where commercial human spaceflight sessions took place in small and unfilled rooms.

The rise of commercial human spaceflight shows that the space policy of the Barack Obama administration is taking hold, especially with September's announcement that Boeing and SpaceX had been contracted to supply astronaut ferry services to the International Space Station, hopefully starting in 2017. Since the space shuttle flew its last mission in 2011, U.S. astronauts have been dependent on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get to the station. 

Boeing and SpaceX had major presences in the trade show at the Toronto IAC, as did Sierra Nevada, which  after the NASA decision against it is looking for other customers to buy into its Dream Chaser space plane concept. Sierra Nevada has also resorted to asking the courts to overturn NASA's decision to choose its competitors.

NASA officials explaining the turn to commercial provision of spaceflight services compared these spacecraft to trucks. When the U.S. government needs trucks today, it buys vehicles designed and built by private industry rather than designing its own trucks and having them built to those specifications. That policy is already in operation with SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft delivering supplies to the ISS.

NASA Associate Administrator  Bill Gerstenmaier told one session that NASA's current vision means far greater change than simply what spacecraft are used to carry crews to the ISS. Once the station is retired, perhaps as soon as ten years from now, radical changes could be in store for spaceflight in low Earth orbit (LEO).

Gerstenmaier said LEO should become the place where the private sector uses the space environment to improve life on Earth, providing services such as remote sensing of Earth and using the space environment to develop new materials.

If he were handed the money to build another ISS, Gerstenmaier said he wouldn't take it. "If you give your money to me, I'll take it and go explore." The targets of NASA's  exploration plans include the planet Mars, asteroids, the Moon, and other bodies in the solar system.

Much of that exploration will likely be done with the Orion spacecraft being built  for NASA by Lockheed Martin. Orion got its start under the Bush space policy a decade ago, and the first test launch of Orion is slated for December.

Model of Orion Spacecraft on show at IAC 2014.

Other commercial providers of spaceflight were also present at the congress. Virgin Galactic, whose plans to carry paying passengers on suborbital flights have been repeatedly postponed, updated delegates on their problems with propellant for their SpaceShipTwo vehicle and hopes to begin full operations next year. Tickets are available for $250,000 a ride. Far more expensive are commercial trips around the Moon being offered on Russian spacecraft by Space Adventures Ltd. at $180 million. 

Canada Plays Politics

A tradition at these congresses is for the heads of the world's major space agencies to gather. The leaders of the Russian and Chinese space programs were conspicuous by their absence from Toronto, and the reason turned out to be the Harper government 's decision to refuse them visas. 

In the case of Russia, many countries have sanctioned the Putin government for its illegal takeover of the Crimea and complicity in the destruction of a Malaysian Airlines aircraft, but Canada seems to be the only country extending these sanctions to space activities. Earlier this year, Canada had pulled a Canadian navigation satellite off a Russian rocket and at the congress it announced that the satellite would instead be launched by India.

Russia didn't have a booth at the IAC 2014 trade show, but Ukraine did.

Many delegates believe that the denial of visas to Russian space program officials, including well-known cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, constituted a victory of the Harper government's domestic political imperatives over Canada's international reputation. Most space programs today, especially Canada's, rely on international cooperation, and the Canadian government's handling of these visas could have unexpected repercussions.

Canada's space program, including the Canadian Space Agency's remaining astronauts, David Saint-Jacques and Jeremy Hansen, were front and centre at the congress, but with budgetary restraint being the order of the day at the CSA, there was little new on show except for Canadian contractor MDA's plans for a next-generation Canadarm for use on Orion and other spacecraft, new Earth-facing cameras slated for installation on the ISS by Vancouver high definition image provider Urthecast, and Toronto Italian espresso maker Lavazza's unveiling of a prototype espresso maker for the ISS.

While these products portend only minor changes, the rise of commercial human spaceflight means big changes in the field of spaceflight. With NASA leading the way by supporting commercial space providers, other space agencies, corporations and individuals may find it easier to book seats into Earth orbit.

In place of the Soyuz ferries and the ISS of today, tomorrow's space traveller may be able to choose between a number of commercial providers to get into orbit, where they will be able to visit space stations built by private providers, such as Bigelow Aerospace and its inflatable modules. And NASA astronauts, perhaps accompanied by Canadian astronauts and others, may fly beyond Low Earth Orbit to new destinations in the solar system. That's the vision spelled out at the Toronto congress, but events on Earth will ultimately tell whether this vision becomes reality.

The two most famous attendees at the congress were former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Bill Nye the Science Guy, who is doing a great job as the new face of the Planetary Society. I bumped into Nye on the first day of the congress. 

Looking Back at Canada's Last International Astronautical Congress

Commercial Displays at IAC 2004. Chris Gainor photos.

Next week I will be in Toronto for the 65th International Astronautical Congress, the world's biggest annual meeting of people involved in the exploitation and exploration of space.

This annual event first took place in Paris in 1950, and it has rotated around the world since then, taking place last year in Beijing and scheduled for next year in Jerusalem. The meeting at the Metro Convention Centre, which goes from September 29 to October 3, is the third to take place in Canada - the IAC also took place in Montreal in 1991 and in Vancouver in 2004.

These meetings draw thousands of delegates, including astronauts, leaders of space agencies, managers, engineers, scientists, business people, lawyers, and even historians like me.

I took part in the Vancouver IAC ten years ago, and as the Toronto IAC approaches, I am reflecting on what has changed and not changed in space in the decade that has passed since the Vancouver meeting.

That meeting opened on October 4, 2004, which was not only the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik but an historic day for space in its own right. That day SpaceShipOne completed the set of flights to the edge of space that won it the $10 million Ansari X Prize, heralding a new era of private space flight. That news created expectations that the day when tourists would be able to fly on short suborbital flights to the fringes of space was only a couple of years off.

A decade later, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is still undergoing test flights and except for the handful of multi-millionaires who have been able to afford scarce seats on Soyuz spacecraft flying to International Space Station, the dream of space tourism remains on hold. No doubt this prolonged delay would have surprised those hopeful attendees at the Vancouver IAC in 2004.

Although Virgin Galactic's work to establish suborbital space tourism has moved at a slower and more deliberate pace than had been expected, it has met no serious setbacks, and there are hopes that the first flight with tourists on board will happen in the next year or two.

Other private space efforts have moved ahead in the past decade, usually with the help of governments.

At IAC 2004, I picked up a t-shirt and cap promoting a then-new firm called SpaceX, which has since created the Falcon 9 rocket that has established itself as a new force in the space launch field, and the Dragon spacecraft that is already carrying supplies to the ISS. Although a recent SpaceX experimental launch failed, the fifth Dragon delivery mission to the ISS arrived at the station this week, and SpaceX won the go-ahead last week from NASA to build a spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the ISS. The firm has prospered to a large degree because of the Barack Obama administration's policy of supporting private space launch providers.

The success of SpaceX relates to another event from 2004 - the George W. Bush administration's decisions to end the Space Shuttle program, which duly happened in 2011, and replace the shuttle with a new booster and spacecraft. The Bush administration's replacement program still exists as the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, which are still years away from operational flight. These vehicles are competing with new rockets and spacecraft being created by SpaceX and other private sector providers supported by the Obama policy.

China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei (right), appears but doesn't speak at the Vancouver IAC.

Another big event at IAC 2004 related to China's space program. Late one day, word arrived that the next morning China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, would make his first North American appearance at the IAC. Less than a year earlier, Yang had rocketed into space aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, serving notice that China was a rising space power.

Even though most of the astronauts who attended the IAC attracted little notice, Yang's appearance caused near pandemonium. In spite of the short notice, one of the larger rooms in the Vancouver Convention Centre was packed at the announced time of Yang's appearance, and he got a standing ovation from the large crowd as soon as he arrived.

Yang never spoke during the presentation about his flight, leaving all the talking to an official of the Chinese space agency. Cameras flashed throughout his appearance.

I was scheduled to give a paper at the same time, but everyone, including me, wanted to see the world's newest space hero. So we adjourned our history session and I gave my paper later that morning once Yang had gone.

Since then, China's human space program has moved at a deliberate pace. Four Shenzhou spacecraft with larger crews on board have followed Yang into orbit, the last two docking with China's first space station, Tiangong-1. China has also sent spacecraft to the Moon, most recently a robot that soft landed and then deployed a rover.

But more controversially, China has also developed military capabilities in space, notably an anti-satellite weapon that was used destroy a satellite in 2007, creating a serious and ongoing space debris problem. Tense relations between China and the United States caused NASA to reduce its presence at last year's IAC in Beijing.

Another 2004 event that reverberated at the Vancouver congress was NASA's successful landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars, signifying the resuscitation of NASA's Mars exploration program. Today Opportunity is still roaming the red planet, along with the larger Curiosity rover that landed two years ago. The Toronto congress takes place a few days after NASA's MAVEN spacecraft and India's Mars Orbital Mission were successfully inserted into orbit around Mars. The latter event has served notice that India has joined the ranks of the world's great space powers.

As the world's space industry heads to the Toronto congress, all these issues from ten years ago are still active. 

As well, the Toronto meeting will take place under the shadow of the ongoing tensions arising out of Russia's attacks on Ukraine that have pitted Russia against the United States and other space powers, including Canada.  Aside from some verbal threats, these tensions haven't yet affected the operations of the ISS.

Like other spheres of economic activity, the space industry is emerging from the protracted economic troubles that got under way in 2008. Activity in space by private firms and government agencies took hits from the recession, and next week we will see how far the space industry has bounced back.

Thoughts on the History of Technology

What do historians of technology do? Many people may think that we simply track the parts that go into the machines that we use in our lives and the systems that make modern life what it is. Or that we look at the individuals who are associated with various technologies, such as Thomas Edison or Bill Gates.

These topics are but a small part of our studies. The interaction of society and technology is a complicated one, and by studying this interaction we can learn a great deal about how technology and society evolve.

In explaining why we study the evolution of technology, I often start off with seemingly simple questions: are the technologies we use determined by the physical qualities of the devices involved? Or do people determine how these devices develop and are used?

An example I like to use when dealing with this question concerns stairs. When I display a photo of stairs being confronted by a person in a wheelchair, no one needs to be told what the person in the wheelchair is thinking. The person is wondering why there are only stairs and not a way of moving up or down that accommodates their disability.

Once buildings were equipped only with stairs, but today more buildings include other options such as ramps to help people get up and down regardless of their abilities. To put only stairs in a building was a conscious decision made by people, not something dictated by physics. And the fact that today buildings are routinely created to be accessible to all is a result of social change resulting from persons with disabilities and others advocating for this change.

Historians of technology look at questions like this, and at the design and use of things like the automobile. Why do our cars have certain capabilities and not others? Why and how did the internal combustion engine become the primary power source? Why not steam engines or the electric car? It's much more complicated than the superiority of one type of engine over another. It involved people making certain choices and sometimes acting to close off other choices for a variety of reasons.

In the matter of space exploration, we look at why it has progressed in the way it did. Why have humans gone to the Moon already? And why has no one gone back for more than four decades?

The history of technology is a relatively new discipline. Some date it to 1958, when the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) was formed, although it certainly goes back farther as part of the older discipline of the history of science.

Thomas P. Hughes 1923-2014

Earlier this year, we lost one of the great historians of technology and one whose writings influence my own work, Thomas Parke Hughes, who passed away in Virginia at the age of 90.

Hughes is probably best known for his 1983 book, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930, which compares how electrical power systems were set up in those years in Britain, Germany and the United States. While on the face of it, this is a dry subject, Hughes' account contained many insights about technology and the societies he covered in that book.

For example, early British power systems were private, small and highly decentralized. During this time, Britons moving just a few blocks would have to deal with a different power system and a different power provider with their own voltages and plug designs. Perhaps it was just as well that they had far fewer appliances back then! Germany had more centralized power systems that moved easily from private to state control, and the U.S. has been served by large private providers who fought ferociously against public power. The Great War that started 100 years ago led to greater centralization of power systems in all these places.

In that book, Hughes introduced ideas about phases in the development of technological systems, starting with invention and development, then technology transfer to and from other systems, followed by system growth and technological momentum as more people become dependent on a particular system. He also raised the idea of the technological reverse salient, where a system component does not progress along with other parts of the system in question, affecting the evolution of the whole system.

In American Genesis: A Century of Innovation and Technological Enthusiasm in 1988, Hughes wrote about how American culture was shaped by technological change and widespread popular enthusiasm for new technologies.

Two more recent works returned to technological systems. Rescuing Prometheus (1998) looked at the rise of systems engineering in the world of Cold War missile systems with the SAGE computer system and the Atlas missile, an area where I have done much of my historical work, and then its fall in large infrastructure projects in American cities, followed by its subsequent return in computer systems leading to the internet.

In Human Built World in 2004, Hughes discussed the interfaces between society and technology, arguing for a seamless web between the human and technological realms.

Hughes did not believe in technological determination and neither do I. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a complex interplay between technological systems and the societies they live in, with technologies affecting and being affected by political, social, and economic factors as well as their own physical properties.

Historians of technology such as Thomas Hughes have given us many insights about how technology affects our lives, and how society and social forces have shaped the technologies that we increasingly depend upon in our lives. These insights help us anticipate what the technological changes of today and tomorrow may bring.

Thomas P. Hughes, 1923-2014.

A Great Summer at the Centre of the Universe

RASC volunteers and telescopes at the DAO on September 6. Chris Gainor photo.

The first summer of public outreach at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory since last year's closure of the Centre of the Universe educational centre has gone in the books as a major success.

Large crowds came out for Saturday night public observing at the DAO, and space camps held for young students were also well supported. Having said that, this year's public outreach was not trouble free, and a lot of work needs to be done in the coming months to ensure that public outreach continues on a more permanent basis.

Last summer, the National Research Council of Canada, which runs the DAO, announced that the Centre and its public outreach work would close, although the DAO's research work would continue as it has for nearly 100 years. The Centre closed at the end of that summer.

By then, the public in Greater Victoria had shown its concern about the NRC's action by signing petitions supporting the Centre, and large crowds came out for the Centre's final public events.

In November, a meeting facilitated by Saanich South MLA Lana Popham brought people from the community and concerned groups together to begin the job of reconstituting public outreach at the DAO. The effort won support from the NRC, and for 2014, the Victoria Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada agreed to hold public observing nights at the DAO similar to what it had done before the Centre opened in 2001. 

The University of Victoria's Science Venture program agreed to hold space camps for children in Grades 3 to 8 at the Centre of the Universe building this summer. Science Venture is reported to be happy with the response to their space camps.

This year's public observing at the DAO began on May 3, Astronomy Day. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, but more than 200 people came to the DAO anyway to tour the historic Plaskett Telescope. The story was similar when summer Saturday observing sessions resumed on July 5. After that, the weather was nearly perfect for most of the next six public observing sessions over the summer, with crowds usually exceeding 400 people for each session.

Last Saturday, so many people turned up that traffic jams formed on West Saanich Road, and many people were turned back. Capacity for both people and cars at the observatory is limited, and this is a problem that will have to be addressed for next year.

For each public observing night, RASC volunteers showed visitors planets, stars and other celestial objects through their own telescopes, while other volunteers conducted tours of the Plaskett Telescope, which in four years will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its opening. I helped out inside the Plaskett and had the privilege of working alongside telescope operator Dave Balam, who is one of the world's top experts on asteroids.

Visitors to the first observing night in August got to meet CBC Quirks and Quarks host Bob McDonald, who received a certificate from Balam stating that an asteroid has been named after him.  Lana Popham and her friends arranged for popcorn and hot chocolate for visitors to the DAO for last Saturday's summer finale.

For observing nights next year and in the future, the RASC is thinking about ways to improve programming, perhaps with lectures about astronomy.

The next step is to create a non-profit entity to operate the Centre of the Universe and outreach programs at the DAO. Don Moffatt, who spearheaded last year's petition to save the Centre, has set up a Friends of the DAO - Dominion Astrophysical Observatory group on Facebook, and everyone who is interested in keeping public outreach alive at the DAO is urged join this group.

Before public activities return to the DAO next year, those of us involved in this year's successes hope to have news about the new entity and new public outreach activities on Observatory Hill. While there are many ideas being discussed for future years, we must keep in mind that the observing sessions were run by volunteers, and volunteer time is not an unlimited resource, and funds for new programs are scarce.

Everyone mentioned above deserves thanks for all the hard work they did to make this summer's observing possible. I would like to give a special thanks to  the NRC and its staff at the observatory for all their help.

This year, the RASC Victoria Centre is celebrating its 100th anniversary. In June the Victoria Centre held a hugely successful General Assembly for RASC members from across Canada, something that also involved a major volunteer effort. Once that was over, Victoria Centre members pulled off this summer's observing nights. Kudos to all the RASC volunteers for creating a memorable centennial celebration!

Visiting the historic Plaskett Telescope at the DAO, September 6. Sherry Buttnor photo.