(Street Life is a regular feature that focuses on what's playing in the stock market.)

Act I: The Final Frontier

* The Player: Com Dev International (TSX:CDV)

* Action: Down three per cent in a week (from $3.14 July 21)

* Recent Price: $3.05

* 52-Week High/Low: $6.05/$2.83 In 1959, NASA may have boldly gone where no man had gone before with its first mission into space, but it's 2008 and Canada can finally boast of a mission of its own: Intergalactic garbage tracker.

Project SAPPHIRE, the first dedicated space mission for the Department of National Defence (DND), will be a satellite designed to monitor space debris and man-made objects in medium- to high-Earth orbits (6,000 to 40,000 km from Earth).

Com Dev International, a space hardware subsystems designer based in Cambridge, Ont., has won a $12.3-million contract from Richmond, B.C.-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX:MDA) to develop the satellite's optical payload: A telescope to see distant objects and an electronics subsystem that formats the images and transmits data to a DND ground station.

With SAPPHIRE, Canada may be able to see all the space junk floating around, but if only we had some sort of arm to pick it up ...

Act II: Light Money

* The Player: Zecotek Photonics (TSXV:ZMS)

* Action: Up 36 per cent in a week (from $0.70 July 21)

* Recent Price: $0.95

* 52-Week High/Low: $2.18/$0.65 Technology may already rule our world, but the optoelectronics subset (electronic devices that source, detect and control light) is growing so fast it's almost unfathomable.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA), the global optoelectronics market increased 14.5 per cent to $565 billion in 2006 from $494 billion the year before. By 2017, revenue is expected to surpass $1.2 trillion Zecotek Photonics, a Vancouver-based company that develops high-performance crystals, photo detectors, lasers and imaging, is poised to capture a bigger portion of that market, having just signed an agreement with T.E.M. Inc., a Japanese distributor of laser and electro-optical products. (The Japanese optoelectronics industry, incidentally, was estimated to be $75 billion in 2007.)

The news has helped push the stock upward off its 52-week low, hit in the middle of July.

Act III: Eureka Uranium

* The Player: Bayswater Uranium (TSXV:BAY)

* Action: Down eight per cent in a week (from $0.31 July 21)

* Recent Price: $0.285

* 52-Week High/Low: $1.44/$0.28 Bayswater Uranium might have positive announcements coming out of its operations in the next year, but shareholders must be hoping good news translates into stock gains.

The Vancouver-based company recently announced a new uranium find, discovered while exploring a radiometric anomaly in the company's North Thelon project in Nunavut. Samples have been submitted for chemical analyses and results are expected in late summer or early fall.

Geologic mapping of another area nearby has shown potential for a shallow open-pittable uranium deposit, but drilling in 2009 will tell more.

Next summer, Stornoway Diamond Corp.

(which partnered with Bayswater in 2007 to explore the area for diamonds) plans to try drilling again, even though its previous samples came up empty.

Bayswater investors, however, have watched their shares drop steadily from November highs of $1.30, and even the new uranium find only lifted the stock a half penny.

Act IV: Royal Exit

* The Player: Royal Host REIT (TSX:RYL.UN)

* Action: Up seven per cent in a week (from $6.17 July 21)

* Recent Price: $6.63

* 52-Week High/Low: $7.30/$5.90 The Okanagan Valley may have wineries, golf courses, orchards and recreational opportunities, but it no longer has a Royal Host resort.

Royal Host REIT, the Calgary-based hotel property investment trust, has sold the Grand Okanagan Lakefront Resort and Conference Centre in Kelowna for $131 million. The trust will net around $85 million in the deal, after accounting for Royal Host's commitment to complete the current casino expansion, and the purchaser's assumption of a $35-million mortgage.

The sale leaves Royal Host with a portfolio of around 30 hotels, operating under such brands as Best Western, Country Inns & Suites, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Ramada, Super 8, Thriftlodge and Travelodge, as well as some unbranded properties.

NOTE: The above is not intended as investment advice to buy or sell any mentioned securities. Investors should do due diligence before investing. Quotes are based on results through July 28, 2008.

(Nicole Strandlund can be reached at nicole@businessedge.ca)