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An Ariane 3 rocket is launched from the space centre in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying Brazil's first communications satellite Brasilsat F1, into orbit. This satellite is selected as the prime contractor for satellites and ground equipment for an international client.
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The experiment is designed by Jean-François Deschênes and Daniel Rey from École secondaire Charlebois in Ottawa. Astronauts Jerry Ross and Sherwood Spring perform a spacewalk for the first experiment to assemble space station elements.
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The Shuttle Challenger explodes in a huge fireball 73 seconds after lift-off. This killed 7 crewmembers of mission STS-51L, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. The Canadarm would have been used to deploy and retrieve a Spartan 203 autonomous platform.
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Canada signs international agreements to become full partner of the International Space Station program.
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Canada's GEODE is launched on a Maser sounding rocket from the European Space Range in Kiruna, Sweden.The experiment is to produce cadmium/mercury telluride crystals in microgravity.
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With Spar Aerospace Limited confirmed as the industrial prime contractor Canada invests $1.19 billion until the year 2000.
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After a break of nearly 3 years, the Shuttle Discovery lifts off into the Florida sky for mission STS-26R. This mission to deploy a TDRS relay satellite. Canadian fluid experiment, designed by Dr. Don Brooks of the University of British Columbia, is activated and monitored by astronaut George D. Nelson.
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Canada participates in the launch of the European Space Agency's experimental communications satellite, Olympus.Olympus provides a test bed for advanced satellite communications technologies with four separate payloads:
1. A two-channel high power direct broadcasting payload
2. A four-channel Specialized Services Payload
3. A payload for advanced communications experiments
4. A beacon package for propagation experiments -
Science and Technology Canada Minister signs a Memorandum of Understanding with colleagues in nine provinces for the RADARSAT Program. Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia agree to invest $52.9 million into the program. The federal government announces that its investment in RADARSAT has reached $330 million.
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Four days into the 12-day mission STS-32, the astronauts of Shuttle Columbia retrieve the Long-Duration Exposure Facility, a school-bus sized platform that had been left in orbit for nearly six years. Three trays on the facility contain material experiments that had been designed by Prof. Rod Tennyson of University of Toronto's Institute of Aerospace Science.
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On day 2 of the six-day mission STS-31, the Hubble Space Telescope is set out of Discovery's cargo bay, with the help of Canadarm.
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A Canadian Black Brant 5 suborbital rocket lifts off the White Sands range, in New Mexico, to launch the cosmic background radiation astronomy payload. This Canadian experiment, which consists of a particle detector to measure fossil radiations resulting from the original Big Bang explosion.
