John H. Chapman Space Centre

John H. Chapman Space Centre

Agency overview
Formed	1992
Type	Research and Technological Development
Jurisdiction	Government of Canada
Headquarters	Longueuil, Quebec 45°31′21″N 73°23′45″W / 45.52239°N 73.39582°WCoordinates: 45°31′21″N 73°23′45″W / 45.52239°N 73.39582°W
Employees	< 600
Parent agency	CSA
Website	www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/default.asp

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 and name

The centre has a total surface area of 41 hectares (101 acres)^[1] located on the border of the Saint Hubert airport, a general aviation facility. 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.^[2]

The building was finished in 1992 and named Canadian Space Agency Headquarters, and in 1996, it was renamed the John H. Chapman Space Centre in honour of John Chapman for his accomplishments in the Canadian Space Program and because of his role in the Alouette 1 program.^[3]

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, ISRO and other national space agencies.

References

1. John H. Chapman Space Center. Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. Retrieved on April 2016.
2. Canadian Space Agency headquarters photo. Can we finally reach for the stars?, "The Space Review". Retrieved on 2008-01-10
3. John Herbert Chapman - Builder of the Canadian space program. Science Canada. Retrieved on April 15, 2016.