The David Florida Laboratory is the

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; french: Agence spatiale canadienne, ASC) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The president is Lisa Campbell, who took the position on September 3, 202 ...

's spacecraft assembly, integration and testing centre, in

Shirleys Bay Shirleys Bay is a bay of the Ottawa River, about sixteen kilometres (10 miles) from downtown Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Shirleys Bay also includes a significant wetland and nature preserve that is part of an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area th ...

, just west of central

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

. It is operated by the

and rented out to Canadian and foreign aerospace and telecommunications companies and organizations for qualifying space bound equipment such as communication or scientific satellites, or components made to be placed on satellites or installed in a space station. The laboratory was named to honour C. David Florida, a leading Canadian pioneer in space research. Officially opened in September, 1972, the lab has been expanded over the years to accommodate the demand for its services. There are many support facilities such as storage areas,

clean room A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space, which maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well isolated, well-controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientif ...

s, electrodynamic shakers,

anechoic chamber An anechoic chamber (''an-echoic'' meaning "non-reflective") is a room designed to stop reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves. They are also often isolated from energy entering from their surroundings. This combination means t ...

s, space (thermal and vacuum) simulation chambers and in-house mechanical, electrical and electronic shops. In the past the David Florida Laboratory has tested satellites for

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

, and the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

. Inmarsat has designated it as their authorized antenna test house. It has also tested Canadian satellites such as

RADARSAT-1 RADARSAT-1 was Canada's first commercial Earth observation satellite. It utilized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to obtain images of the Earth's surface to manage natural resources and monitor global climate change. As of March 2013, the satelli ...

and previously tested the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (Dextre) which now forms part of the

Mobile Servicing System The Mobile Servicing System (MSS), is a robotic system on board the International Space Station (ISS). Launched to the ISS in 2001, it plays a key role in station assembly and maintenance; it moves equipment and supplies around the station, supp ...

of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

. It completed work on the Orbiter Boom Sensor System which first flew on Shuttle Discovery during

STS-114 STS-114 was the first "Return to Flight" Space Shuttle mission following the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster. ''Discovery'' launched at 10:39 EDT (14:39 UTC), July 26, 2005. The launch, 907 days (approx. 29 months) after the loss of ''Co ...

. The Laboratory worked on RADARSAT-2 prior to launch in 2007. Recently the David Florida Laboratory has completed the integration and environmental testing of the Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Microsatellite (M3MSat). This is a technology demonstration satellite that will be used to assess the utility of having in space an Automatic Identification System (AIS) for reading signals from vessels to better manage transport in Canadian waters. M3MSat was scheduled to be launched in 2015.

Notes

External links

Canadian Space Agency website - David Florida Laboratory FAQ's

{{authority control Space program of Canada Science and technology in Canada Buildings and structures in Ottawa Research institutes in Canada Space technology research institutes 1972 establishments in Ontario