Canada’s First Space Telescope Launched

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) said Monday that the country’s first space telescope, called MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars) was successfully launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 10:15 a.m. EDT, and released into orbit at 11:46 AM EDT. Launch services were provided by Germany’s Eurockot Launch Services.

The MOST microsatellite was built by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, while the telescope itself was designed and built by the University of British Columbia, with support from Toronto’s CRESTech and Spectral Applied Research. Dynacon Enterprises of Mississauga, Canada, is the prime contractor that built the power system and developed the satellite’s pointing system, whose new, miniaturized reaction wheels are what make it possible to put such a powerful instrument in such a small package.