UK Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency Tighten Cooperation

The UK Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on 10th April. The signing took place on the sidelines of the 39th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, USA, as part of the UK’s push to strengthen it’s international bonds in space.

Not just rocket science

The new MoU does have a science and engineering component, but UK Space Agency emphasizes that it “also includes collaboration on regulation, facilitating the exchange of ideas and information on areas such as space policy, standards, and regulations, helping to ensure free and fair access to space for all.”

This cooperation with the Canadian Space Agency includes funding projects within the UK Space Agency International Bilateral Fund (IBF). A UK Space Agency announcement on 8th April at the Symposium regarding the IBF included projects with Canadian firms. This includes University of Strathclyde with American partners at the University of Arizona and MIT, but also Canada’s University of Waterloo and Columbiad Launch Services.

The UK Space Agency press report adds that the “IBF has also funded the joint UK-Canada £1.2 million Aqualunar Challenge. The new international challenge prize – delivered by Challenge Works on behalf of the UK Space Agency and in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and Impact Canada – is rewarding the design of innovative technologies to make human habitation on the Moon viable, by finding ways to purify water buried beneath the lunar surface.”

For more on the new MoU with the Canadian Space Agency, and the projects already covered, especially in imaging, astronomical observation, and planetary exploration, see the announcement here.