Maya HTT, Siemens PLM host space movie premier in Montreal

Approximately 250 suppliers to the Montreal aerospace community gathered at the Colossus de Laval theater and entertainment complex in the Cosmodome for a premier showing of “First Man,” the movie which traces the history of the first moon landing in 1969. The film focuses on the life of Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut who took that “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

This event was sponsored jointly by Maya HTT and Siemens PLM, partners in service to the aerospace industry in Montreal. Hosting the event was Rita Azrak, marketing director for Maya, who began the technical presentation portion of the day by musing that the actual “first foot” on the moon was Canadian, as the landing leg cones on the lunar excursion module Eagle were fabricated in Canada.

A recorded message from the first Canadian astronaut, Marc Garneau, now Minister of Transport in Canada and a veteran of three flights on the Space Shuttle, began the presentation. Three main speakers gave insights on their companies’ involvement in the industry and shared their optimism for the future, as funding for renewed space exploration by both Canada and America is in the works with the respective countries’ governments.

Mike Greenley, group president for aerospace supplier MDA Corp.; George Rendell, senior director at Siemens; and Marc Lafontaine, vice-president of Maya spoke of the benefits in our daily lives from the space program, as well as the next major project now under way, the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a lunar orbit space station which will serve as a solar-powered communications hub, science lab, short-term habitation module, and holding area for space rovers and other robots.

The program also included a variety of successes achieved with Siemens PLM products, especially NX CAD and NX CAM through the Teamcenter of product lifecycle management. Maya is the Siemens partner in Montreal and brings further value to these products and others in the Siemens suite as a Platinum Level VAR, serving a broad spectrum of industries, including aerospace, defense, automotive, marine, and commercial building.