John H. Chapman Space Centre
The John H. Chapman Space Centre is the headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency. It is located in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, in the borough of Saint-Hubert.
Location
The centre is on the border of the Saint Hubert airport, a general aviation facility. The building was finished in 1992 and named the John H. Chapman Centre in honour of John Chapman, who is considered to be the father of the Canadian Space Program, because of his role in the Alouette 1 program.
Site
The building is supposed to look somewhat like a space station, when seen from above. However, it bears no resemblance to real stations like the ISS or to famous fictional ones like the wheel of 2001: A Space Odyssey.[1]
Programs
The centre houses the Canadian astronaut office and most of the administrative and technical units supporting Canada's programs in space sciences and technology. This includes satellite control rooms, the Protein Crystal Growth Mission Support Centre, and simulators for the Canadarm2, the Mobile Servicing System, and the Advanced Space Vision System. It also houses the Mission Operations Centre (MOC) that includes the Remote Multi-Purpose Support Room (RMPSR) that is used to operate the MSS on-orbit in conjunction with the flight control and mission evaluation rooms at the Johnson Space Center as well as the Operations and Engineering Centre (OEC) which supports the flight controllers at JSC. As the headquarters for the space agency, it also houses many offices for general administrative functions or for specific programs such as exchange activities with NASA, ESA, and other national space agencies.
References
- ^ Canadian Space Agency headquarters photo. In Can we finally reach for the stars?, "The Space Review". Retrieved on 2008-01-10 from http://www.thespacereview.com/article/674/1.