A rocket that blasted into space Sunday carried a Canadian-made hybrid satellite that will study the weather in the earth’s upper atmosphere and conduct experiments in moving massive data files to remote regions of the world.
SpaceX, a private company in the U.S., launched the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket carrying the Cascade Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE).
MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (TSX:MDA) was the lead in a consortium of industry partners on the project, according to the Canadian Space Agency.
"The Canadian Space Agency is proud to contribute to the CASSIOPE mission," said CSA president Walter Natynczyk. “It enables the integration of the Government's research and development agenda while partnering with Canadian space industry and university science sectors.”
The CSA spent $63 million on the project.
According to the CSA, Cascade is providing a “proof of concept” design for moving massive amounts of data and has been characterized as a digital courier in space.
The CASSIOPE satellite includes ePOP (enhanced polar outflow probe), which will be used to observe the earth’s ionosphere to analyze space weather, like solar storms.
