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Cision Canada
a day ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
MDA SPACE REOPENS OPERATIONS AT DAVID FLORIDA LABORATORY
Ensures critical sovereign satellite and space systems integration and testing capabilities remain available to all industry in Canada BRAMPTON, ON, June 27, 2025 /CNW/ - MDA Space Ltd. (TSX: MDA), a trusted mission partner to the rapidly expanding global space industry, today announced it has taken over operation of the David Florida Laboratory (DFL) in Ottawa, ensuring this world-class testing facility remains open to industry and under sovereign Canadian control. The facility houses essential infrastructure that enables the assembly, integration and testing of entire spacecraft and satellite systems and subsystems to ensure their ability to operate in the harsh conditions of space. No other facility of its kind is commercially available in Canada. Owned and operated by the Canadian Government since the 1970s, DFL has been a strategic national asset and integral part of Canada's national and industrial end-to-end space capability for decades, supporting the development of space technology and critical missions for both the government and private sector. The facility has played a pivotal role in establishing Canada's world-leading national and industrial space capabilities including critical components of the James Webb Space Telescope, all Canadarm space robotics, the RADARSAT family of Earth observation satellites, and multiple generations of essential communications satellites that support every aspect of the daily lives of Canadians. MDA's stewardship of the facility underscores its commitment to advancing the nation's space ambitions while ensuring Canadian companies have the resources they need to succeed in a growing and commercializing global space industry. "The David Florida Laboratory is an irreplaceable national asset and the operational transfer to industry at a time of rapid commercialization of the global and domestic space industry is a natural evolution," said Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA Space. "We are honoured to take on this responsibility to ensure DFL remains open to all industry for the long term, preserving Canada's sovereign space capabilities and helping to foster innovation and growth across the Canadian space sector." The David Florida Laboratory will continue to support a range of assembly, integration and test (AI&T) requirements including Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), thermal vacuum, antenna and vibration test services. MDA Space is committed to providing fair and equitable access to all industry partners to test and validate their advanced technologies on a competitive fee-for-services basis. Details of integration and testing services offered at DFL are available on the MDA Space LaunchPad porta l or by contacting [email protected]. ABOUT MDA SPACE Building the space between proven and possible, MDA Space (TSX: MDA) is a trusted mission partner to the global space industry. A robotics, satellite systems and geointelligence pioneer with a 55-year+ story of world firsts and more than 450 missions, MDA Space is a global leader in communications satellites, Earth and space observation, and space exploration and infrastructure. The MDA Space team of more than 3,400 space experts in Canada, the US and the UK has the knowledge and know-how to turn an audacious customer vision into an achievable mission – bringing to bear a one-of-a-kind mix of experience, engineering excellence and wide-eyed wonder that's been in our DNA since day one. For those who dream big and push boundaries on the ground and in the stars to change the world for the better, we'll take you there. For more information, visit
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists make jaw-dropping discovery after satellite images reveal what's hiding over a mile beneath Antarctic ice: 'It's like uncovering a time capsule'
Scientists studying the East Antarctic Ice Sheet discovered a 34-million-year-old river-carved landscape hidden under more than a mile of ice, The Brighter Side of News reported. The concealed world offered a unique glimpse into the history and potential future of the critical ice sheet. "It's like uncovering a time capsule," said Stewart Jamieson of Durham University, the study's lead author, per The Brighter Side of News. The preserved landscape, which existed before the formation of the Antarctic sheet ice, spanned nearly 4 million square miles, providing experts with an unprecedented view into the region's geological history. The team used RADARSAT, a Canadian satellite system, to detect the landscape beneath the ice, per The Brighter Side of News. By studying the preserved landscape, researchers can better understand previous cycles of freezing and melting that can be crucial to predicting how future Antarctic ice melt will unfold. Because the Antarctic ice sheets sit on land rather than floating in water like Arctic ice, their melting would have a dramatic impact on sea levels around the world. According to the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics, the basin where the researchers discovered the hidden landscape contained enough ice to raise sea levels by a catastrophic 25 feet or more. Still, the land under the surface of that crucial ice sheet remained more mysterious to researchers than the surface of Mars. "And that's a problem because the landscape controls the way that ice in Antarctica flows, and it controls the way it might respond to past, present, and future climate change," Jamieson told UTIG. Researchers expressed hope that the discovery will lead to similar findings in other regions. "This landscape hanging out there in the middle of the basin is a little bit of an odd phenomenon," said Duncan Young, a research scientist for UTIG. "We're now working to answer why it was preserved and use that knowledge to find others." Combined, the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland contain two-thirds of Earth's fresh water, and they are melting at an astounding rate, according to NASA. The Antarctic ice sheet alone is shedding a jaw-dropping 150 billion tons of ice every single year. While studying the potential future impacts of rising global temperatures is important, it is just as important to prevent planet-warming pollution from entering the atmosphere in the first place. By taking steps like installing solar on your home, switching to an electric vehicle, or growing your own food in a home garden, you can do your part to help limit increasing global temperatures and sea-level rises. While these might seem like small things to do in the face of such a momentous challenge, if we multiply those actions by millions or even billions of people, we can make a real difference. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Time of India
08-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Scientists discover 34 million year old hidden river world buried under 2 km of Antarctic ice
The North and South poles remain hidden beneath the thick icy cover of snow year-round, and as a result, most parts of the poles remain largely unexplored by humankind, concealing numerous secrets underneath. Beneath the thick ice of East Antarctica lies a hidden world, untouched for over 34 million years. This frozen expanse, more than 10 million square kilometers wide, has long concealed a forgotten landscape. The way leading to the secrets of the hidden landscape A team led by Stewart Jamieson at Durham University made this discovery with help from RADARSAT, a Canadian satellite system. The technology allowed them to detect small changes in the ice surface, revealing the shape of the land buried below. What found something as extraordinary as an ancient river-carved terrain, that was about the size of Wales, locked under nearly two kilometers of ice. 'It's like uncovering a time capsule,' Jamieson said as reported by the Brighter Side news. The untouched condition of the landscape might be due to its extreme age. Preserved beneath the ice sheet's crushing weight, the land remained unchanged since long before glaciation began. This hidden world dates back to a period when Antarctica was not the icy desert we know today. Back then, the continent was part of Gondwana, a supercontinent shared with Africa, South America, and Australia. Instead of ice, Antarctica had flowing rivers, forests, and roaming dinosaurs. That changed about 20 million years ago when glaciers took over, freezing the region's history beneath a growing sheet of ice. How did Antarctica go from Gondwana to Glaciation? The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) began forming during the Eocene-Oligocene transition around 34 million years ago, as global temperatures plummeted and CO2 levels dropped below a critical threshold. High-altitude regions such as the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains and Transantarctic Mountains became nuclei for the growing ice masses. Over millions of years, these glaciers expanded, eventually combining into the massive ice sheet that persists today. The EAIS has undergone significant fluctuations throughout its history. During the Miocene period, approximately 17 to 14 million years ago, the ice sheet expanded and retreated in response to climatic shifts. Evidence from marine sediments suggests periods of retreat during warmer intervals, such as the mid-Pliocene warm period and the interglacial periods of the Pleistocene. These fluctuations left persistent imprints on the subglacial area, giving it the features that are now detectable through modern geophysical surveys. Technology tells us more Using the RADARSAT satellite system, scientists observed subtle changes in the slope of the ice's surface. These tiny clues helped reveal a massive, hidden terrain carved by rivers millions of years ago, long before the ice sheet even existed. To dig deeper, scientists used radio-echo sounding (RES) and computer models to study the land below. Their discoveries showed a landscape that didn't match modern ice flow patterns, proving it had formed long before glaciation. They even used flexural modeling to test whether ancient highlands were once part of one continuous landform, later broken up by natural erosion. But why does this matter today? Understanding this ancient environment helps scientists predict how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) could behave in our warming world. Jamieson's team, whose study appeared in Nature Communications, talked about the importance of this work for climate science. 'Understanding how this massive sheet might respond to human-driven climate change is a pressing concern,' he said. This discovery also tells a bigger message that the Earth's past, present, and future are deeply connected. As noted in Scientific American, these buried landscapes are like time machines. By unlocking their secrets, we can better prepare for tomorrow's climate challenges, and possibly help protect the fragile ecosystems still clinging to life today.
