The M3M communications satellite, which was originally to be launched aboard a Russian rocket, will instead blast into orbit from India next July.
The announcement that a deal has been signed with India was made at the International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, a few days after Canada refused to allow Russian delegates to attend the prestigious symposium which opened on Monday.
The exclusion angered Moscow, which said it flew in the face of international space co-operation. The Russians said it amounts to politicizing space exploration over the conflict in Ukraine, where fighting has raged since Russian troops moved on the Crimea in March.
COM DEV International Ltd., based in Cambridge, Ont., reached a deal with Antrix Corp., the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization, to launch the satellite.
The Canadian Space Agency says on its website the M3M was built to meet the needs of the Department of National Defence and ensure Canada's sovereignty.
It was to be launched with a Russian Soyuz rocket in July, but the federal government decided in April not to proceed.
"This was a Canadian government decision based, I would argue, on the political situation that existed," Michael Pley, the CEO of COM DEV, said Thursday. "Clearly there's a link to what's been happening in the Ukraine."
He said the satellite will now be launched on India's Polar Satellite launch vehicle.
"We're thinking that it's late in our third quarter of 2015, so around the July time frame," Pley said in an interview from Toronto.
Read more: After political dispute with Russia, Canadian satellite to be launched by India | CTV News
The announcement that a deal has been signed with India was made at the International Astronautical Congress in Toronto, a few days after Canada refused to allow Russian delegates to attend the prestigious symposium which opened on Monday.
The exclusion angered Moscow, which said it flew in the face of international space co-operation. The Russians said it amounts to politicizing space exploration over the conflict in Ukraine, where fighting has raged since Russian troops moved on the Crimea in March.
COM DEV International Ltd., based in Cambridge, Ont., reached a deal with Antrix Corp., the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization, to launch the satellite.
The Canadian Space Agency says on its website the M3M was built to meet the needs of the Department of National Defence and ensure Canada's sovereignty.
It was to be launched with a Russian Soyuz rocket in July, but the federal government decided in April not to proceed.
"This was a Canadian government decision based, I would argue, on the political situation that existed," Michael Pley, the CEO of COM DEV, said Thursday. "Clearly there's a link to what's been happening in the Ukraine."
He said the satellite will now be launched on India's Polar Satellite launch vehicle.
"We're thinking that it's late in our third quarter of 2015, so around the July time frame," Pley said in an interview from Toronto.
Read more: After political dispute with Russia, Canadian satellite to be launched by India | CTV News
