With the launching of Canada’s first satellite Alouette 1 from Vandenberg Air Force base, California on 29 September, 1962 Canada became the third nation in the world, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to design and build a satellite. The Topside Sounder Alouett e 1 was an immense scientific and technological success. It was designated by the Centennial Engineering Board of Canada in 1987 as one of the ten most outstanding achievements in Canadian engineering in the past 100 years and in 2007 was designated an “event of national historic significance” by the government of Canada. For ten years it provided scientific data that greatly extended our knowledge of the ionosphere and the earth’s upper atmosphere. The success of Alouette 1 led to the creation of Telesat and the Canadian space industry and its expansion into Communications, Remote sensing, Robotics for the NASA Shuttle and Space Station, and Satellite Aided Search and Rescue. The fact that Alouette 1 performed so well and beyond all expectations gave Canada an international reputation for excellence in satellite design and engineering. This keynote describes the not well known origins of the program in the Department of National Defence, how the satellite was designed and its significance for the future of Canada in space. Rather than a detailed technical presentation it is more of a personal perspective from someone who was there from the beginning.

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