Updates on PlanetSpace and Nova Scotia

Yesterday’s report that PlanetSpace is planning to develop a spaceport at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia generated a fair amount of media attention in Canada. Some summaries of the coverage:

• PlanetSpace tells the Canadian Press that they will proceed with their orbital vehicle, Silver Dart, even if they are passed over in NASA’s COTS competition. That’s a good thing, since PlanetSpace hasn’t made anyone’s list of finalists for the competition. The article also states that PlanetSpace was formed last year “was created in response to NASA’s request for bids to shuttle cargo and crew to the space station”; the timing seems a little off there since the company’s formation was announced in May 2005, prior to the formal announcement about COTS.
• The Toronto Star follows up its initial report with news that the Canadian Space Agency is aware of the project and supports it, although it wasn’t clear if CSA was willing to back that support with funding. The report also hints that MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), a Canadian company that built the shuttle and station’s robot arms, among other space projects, might be involved in the effort in some way: a company spokesperson would only say that “two members of its firm familiar with the program were on vacation.”
• The Globe and Mail looks at the project from the perspective of Mark James, the Nova Scotia Business Inc. official who was initially “laughing under his breath” about the idea of a Cape Breton spaceport, but was won over by the company.
• The proposal wins some support from an editorial in the Halifax Daily News in Nova Scotia. “The impulse to crack jokes… is irresistible,” the editorial notes, but adds that “this notion is not as far-fetched as it appears at first glance.”
• Another Halifax newspaper, the Chronicle Herald, features a skeptic about this whole approach: me. I talked with the reporter for about 15 minutes, discussing my issues with the project (which I outlined here yesterday); I was surprised how much play those comments got in the article. I’ll note here that my skepticism doesn’t mean I don’t believe that the company can do what it’s claiming, only that there’s insufficient evidence available publicly today to support claims that they can—a subtle but important distinction.