Industry committee  I have two clarifications. MDA's original contribution was in the order of $180 million. We just got shortchanged on $100 million of that because we are supposed to pay for all the operations and nobody considers that. The $80 million was construction. We spent more than $80 million on construction.

Industry committee  The design life of a satellite is seven years, but satellites are a bit like humans. Once they make it through the first few months, they live a lot longer than their expected life. RADARSAT-1 has outlived itself 30%.

Industry committee  Everything is calculated on seven years.

Industry committee  Canada will receive whatever data it orders, and they expect to order the $450 million over the seven to ten years, yes. There is no limit from our part.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  There is not a significant difference, no.

Industry committee  I think I've answered the question on the access to satellites. There are no issues. We have a binding contract. You can put all our executives in jail. I lived under the U.S. ownership for five years and I did what Canada wanted. The contract was awarded to a 100%-owned U.S. company--not 67%--over that time.

Industry committee  I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that anything that's done in Canada, the Government of Canada has access to. MDA or ATK do a fair amount of business in the U.S. right now. We do business in the States, and we do things in the U.S. that might not be accessible to Canada, just like the Canadian stuff is not accessible to the U.S.

Industry committee  Canada is in no way abandoning RADARSAT. Canada bought data. It will receive that data over the next seven to ten years. Canada has full control over the satellite. I don't see what Canada is abandoning at all. I don't understand.

Industry committee  Nobody is doing anything about any research centres. Nothing is changing. The original contract was awarded to a U.S. company in competition with a Canadian company.

Industry committee  My understanding is that we had a launch contract with Boeing. It was going to be launched by the Americans. Our technical team came to a certain milestone, and at that milestone the launch vehicle did not meet the vibration requirements of our spacecraft. It would have destroyed it.

Industry committee  I'm not totally sure I understand the question.

Industry committee  I'll try to answer what I understand. First of all, there's a company purchase program that was put in place a long time ago. It's completely at arm's length and depends only on the price of the stock. It's run by our board of directors; I don't run it. I don't know when they're buying or selling shares.

Industry committee  We don't need a guarantee from ATK; we have a guarantee from our own government. You cannot export anything our company makes out of this country without a Canadian export permit approval--and I mean anything. I cannot export even a one-page technical note without approval from External Affairs.

Industry committee  Absolutely. The Canadian government has a contract with our company to receive all that data. CSA just told you that. The Canadian foreign affairs ministry regulates everything about that satellite: when it's on and off, who gets to see what, and under what priority. It's all done from Canada, from a Canadian government facility.