Canada's main satellite system is hit by another delay in launch

Canada's star satellite project experienced another launch delay, five years after the first of three spacecraft went into orbit.

The RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) is expected to be launched from a California Air Force Base between February 18 and 24, 2019. This is the fifth such delay since the project was completed. $ 1 billion was affected by technical and other problems.

The mission follows RADARSAT-1 (1995-2012) and RADARSAT-2 (2007 to today), pioneering Canadian satellite projects that use synthetic aperture radar to observe the Earth's surface in every detail, even through cloud cover and bad weather.

The technicians finalized the second of three satellites for the Radarsat constellation mission at the MDA on Thursday, June 21, 2018 in Montreal. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The MRC, proposed for the first time in the federal cabinet in 2004, will use three identical satellites placed in polar orbits to cover 90% of the planet, with the possibility to show objects not exceeding one meter in diameter. Their images will help preserve the sovereignty of the Canadian and northern coasts.

However, launching the project – literally – has been a challenge.

In 2008, the Cabinet finally took the green light with a budget of $ 600 million. The price rose rapidly and the initial launch date of the first of three satellites in 2014 was postponed.

A $ 706 million fixed-price contract was signed in 2013 with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (now MDA, a US-based unit of Maxar Technologies) for the construction, assembly, launch and operation of the trio of satellites for the first year.

Belongs to the government

The contract, building on MDA's success with the first two RADARSATs, specified a launch date of July 17, 2018. MDA owns and operates RADARSAT-2, but the new RCM will be owned by the Government of Canada, providing surveillance data in Canada. Forces and a dozen other departments.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is bearing the new costs, adding an additional $ 300 million to the overall, bringing the total cost to more than $ 1 billion.

The current plan provides for the simultaneous launch of the three identical satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket, built by SpaceX of Elon Musk, with a Swedish "distributor" inserting them into orbits that will see the Earth circling the Earth about all the 90 minutes.

However, the thermal vacuum tests carried out in Montreal of the three satellites delivered by MDA at the end of 2017 revealed a problem with No. 2.

"Such tests of the RCM satellite at the CSA laboratory have revealed a problem with components – one of the satellites – that are sending down the data acquired by the satellite," says an internal document, obtained by CBC News as part of the Access to Information program. Act.

"The defective components were removed from the satellite and sent back to the German MDA supplier in early December."

The failure of the launch "would result in significant delays in the schedule (years) and a cost of $ 600 million or more"– Canadian Space Agency Internal Report on RADARSAT Constellation Delay

Audrey Barbier, spokeswoman for the US Space Agency, said the defective component had been repaired, tested and reinstalled. A new launch date at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was scheduled for October 30 to November 29, 2018.

But SpaceX saw one of its Falcon 9 rockets explode after its launch in June 2015, causing a delay and increasing backlog for launches since then. The company now claims that a Falcon 9 will not be able to put the RCM into orbit before February 18 and 24, 2019.

The mission will then need three to six months to make the satellites operational.

According to an internal government document, this delay means that the Canadian Space Agency will have to rely on less comprehensive RADARSAT-2 data from MDA for much longer than expected, which will increase the budget allocated to this data. more than $ 500 million. $ 446 million.

The theoretical lifetime of RADARSAT-2 was seven years and the spacecraft is now almost four years late, although it remains functional.

Another disaster with a Falcon 9 rocket, or a system failure that inserts the satellites into their 600 km orbit, would be costly for the Canadian government.

No insurance

Ottawa has only once assumed the assurance of a Canadian space hardware launch – $ 80 million for RADARSAT-1 – and will have to assume any loss if the RCN project fails after takeoff.

The agency sets the risk of failure at 5.5%, given the SpaceX balance sheet so far, but the consequences would be serious for the project.

"This would result in significant delays in the schedule (years) and a cost of $ 600 million or more for the construction and launch of three alternative spacecraft and / or the acquisition of surrogate data, if such data were available ", indicates a risk information file, March 2018, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"The reconstruction would take at least another three years, probably four years."

Illustration of the Radarsat-2 satellite orbiting the Earth. The satellite has been designed to last seven years, but is approaching its 11th year in space. His imagery will be needed to fill the void caused by the late launch of the RADARSAT Constellation Mission. A flawless stay

Barbier confirmed that these figures were still valid, adding that "the knowledge and expertise gained during the construction of the constellation would certainly ease the process and that the infrastructure built to support the MRC would already be in place ".

She added that, until now, the agency does not expect that its costs – including those of its 50 employees – will increase – because of recent delays.

The new satellites are each designed to have a life of seven years.

To follow @ DeanBeeby on Twitter