Canada’s Space Reset: A New Launchpad For The Canadian Space Sector

Nearly six decades after Canadian space icon John Chapman imagined a Canada bound together by “strands in space,” space policy has re-emerged as a central question of national cohesion, security, and economic strategy. Whether those strands become the backbone of Canada’s future will depend on the federal government’s ability to execute—and sustain—its ambitious space objectives.

Canada has long grappled with fundamental questions about its purpose in space, particularly whether a meaningful distinction can be drawn between purely civilian and defence space assets. Such questions were central to parliamentary debates leading up to the passage of the Canadian Space Agency Act in 1990, which considered whether the mandate of the newly created Canadian Space Agency (CSA) should be expressly limited by statute to non-military purposes.¹