VANCOUVER -- A few months ago, John MacDonald got a call from an executive at MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., the company he'd co-founded in 1969 and that had gone on to become the heavyweight of Canada's space sector.
MDA had bid for - and won - a contract to build the chassis for a Mars rover that would be part of the European Space Agency's ambitious ExoMars mission, the caller said.
But the Canadian government was dragging its feet on funding its share of the work as required by ESA policies. Would Mr. MacDonald intervene?
Mr. MacDonald, who'd left the company a decade ago but remains close to management, says he picked up the phone and contacted a senior official at Industry Canada who promised to see what he could do.
It was too late. The contract, involving $40-million over three years, went to the runner-up.
For MDA, the lost contract is part of a pattern of inaction on Canadian space policy by successive governments over many years. That lack of direction, say Mr. MacDonald and others, now threatens the viability of the Canadian space sector.
