Space Tourists Could Blast Off from Canada

The Canadian Space Agency plans to build two bases where Canadian rockets, which would put small satellites into orbit, would be launched.

Space tourists might also take off from these bases.

Locations being considered are Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia and Fort Churchill, at the port of Churchill, Manitoba.

More than 3,500 suborbital flights have already been launched from Fort Churchill.

In October 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harbor paid a visit to Fort Churchill, where he announced a multimillion dollar plan to develop the port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay rail line that leads to it over a period of ten years.

PlanetSpace, a Canadian-American consortium, which announced a plan to develop a launching site for space tourists several years ago, would like to use a base at Cape Breton.

The Canadian Space Agency, which has headquarters in Quebec, was launched in 1989. It collaborates with other space agencies, including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).