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ANNOUNCER: From our community to yours...
WOMAN: I'm Shirley Harasym for Accessible Media.
As a three-ocean nation, with the world's longest coastline,
Canada's sheer size makes it necessary
to significantly invest in space technology.
In addition to security and weather forecasting,
we rely on signals from space for ATM banking, GPS,
TV and cell phones.
Canadian Forces Base 22 in North Bay
recently held a news conference to declare
a compact new satellite system called Sapphire
to be fully operational.
Here is now-retired Brigadier-General Richard Pitre,
Director General Space for the Canadian Armed Forces.
23,000 pieces of debris are what we officially track,
10 cms or larger, moving at about 23,000 miles an hour.
You can well imagine, if the impact occurs
on a critical satellite, what that does.
And today, we rely on satellites extensively.
When I say "we" I talk about the global "we".
So this isn't simply just about the department
of National Defence or the Air Force or about Canada,
it is about the global "we".
HARASYM: Tony Hoe, Director General of Information Management
and Project Delivery,
is happy to see Sapphire up and running,
and also that it came in about 10 million dollars under budget.
The most exciting part is seeing it operational.
And the most exciting is seeing it operational
and actually myself seeing working and actually having
operation team in here using the system.
To me, it's the most exciting part of delivering anything.
(Indistinct talking)
It is actually a really, really good project
with all the collaborations and teamwork
to get us below budget and exceed expectations at the end.
HARASYM: By monitoring space from space,
Canada is providing an important contribution
to the global space surveillance system.
I'm Shirley Harasym for Accessible Media.