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Canada hasn’t put a man into space in over a year, and likely won’t do so until 2019. In the meantime, the country’s space agency has elected to serve as a “hub” for the private sector’s space goals instead.
The Canadian Press recently spoke to Bob Behnken, the chief of NASA’s astronaut office in Houston, about why Canada won’t be putting a man back on the International Space Station (ISS) any time soon.
Under a bartering system, countries collect “credits” based on their contributions to the development of the space station, with the credits traded in for trips by astronauts.
Bob Behnken says Canada used up most of them for Chris Hadfield’s five-month visit, which ended in May 2013.
He says Canadian astronauts will have another opportunity to visit the space station — but not until the 2019-2020 time frame.
Back in April, Canadian Space Agency head Walt Natynczyk said he was working on the next opportunity to get one or both of our astronauts into space.
When the space agency was contacted recently, it had nothing new to add to those comments.
Agencies/Canadajournal
