Canada is activating a National Space Council (NSC) to provide strategic direction on national space activities including space defence, and in the minds of several companies action needs to come very quickly.
In early May, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) released details of the multi-governance structure that will include representation from 20 departments and agencies. The CSA and Department of National Defence will serve as co-chairs.
Just before the NSC was confirmed, the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence heard from several representatives May 6 who spoke on behalf of Canada’s space businesses. These representatives said that Canada’s low and inconsistent spending in space activities, high requirements for security clearances and lack of strategic direction is posing both a business and security risk. MDA Space, Telesat, Space Canada, NorthStar Earth and Space and Maritime Launch Services all testified before the committee.
“In my opinion, Canada has fallen behind from a military space capability perspective and is not engaging its industrial base effectively,” MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley told the committee; among other defence activities, the RADARSAT series of satellites his company manages performs Earth observations for the military, in part.
“As a result, our relevance in a rapidly changing geopolitical world is declining, and along with it our ability to protect and defend Canadians from a space perspective,” he continued. “Our single largest key challenge, and our single largest opportunity to reverse this trend, is to take a whole-of-Canada approach to defence military capability delivery.”
Greenley urged a “classified dialogue” between National Defence and space companies to rapidly define and execute on military needs and space threats, a commercial partnership between defence and industry giving more ownership to Canadian industry in the model of the U.K. and U.S., and engaging companies to prioritize aspects like interoperability and interdependency with the U.S. and its allies.
Rapid information will especially help in the startup world where companies are trying to project needs to do fundraising, said NorthStar CEO and founder Stewart Bain, whose Earth observation customers include the military. “Traditional procurement techniques and the ability to transform research and development into monetized commercial activity is the biggest challenge,” he said.
“When we talk about acceleration of activities in space, we talk about the ability to monetize early and quickly and then to grow. NorthStar as a private enterprise raised $140 million not just to develop technology, but also to build and launch four satellites. If you do that on a grassroots, bootstrap method, you end up being fairly slow at how you get there.”
He urged the government to move at the speed of threats, which evolve swiftly: “Space is moving too quickly. The actions are too menacing, and everyone is feeling it. I feel it in the questions that people are asking. You’re quite aware of the challenges we’re facing.”
Brian Gallant, CEO of Space Canada that represents dozens of space companies, urged that the NSC be put in place rapidly to help define and deliver “operational benefits for Canada’s defence”, especially through NORAD and NATO. “Canada should accelerate the delivery of identified space defence programs, engage directly with Canada’s space innovators [and] expand defence research and development programs,” he said.
“When it comes to space,” he added later in his testimony, “we really need a whole-of-government strategy that embodies the way in which other departments can play a role and what space can do for other departments. A national space council will help us have that holistic approach that we need to be a big player on the international stage.”
Michele Beck, senior vice-president of Canadian sales for Telesat, urged Canada to adopt a procurement model similar to what the U.S. and the U.K. uses, instead of “exclusively relying on dedicated government-owned and operated defence systems to meet accelerating threats.” (Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation aims to provide rapid broadband Internet for governments and militaries at a relatively low cost, once it is ready for launch.)
“Instead,” she added, “these governments are working hand in glove with their domestic private sector, leveraging significant commercial investments made in cutting-edge, allied by design, capabilities and are integrating these space-based assets into their defence systems.”
While the defence strategy released by Canada’s federal government this year is helping, she said it’s not going far enough. “The industry is innovating at a very fast pace by making services, technology and capabilities available faster, at a lower price point, with probably greater capabilities than governments can move.”
Gallant echoed those words: “The procurement process should be faster … If the procurement process takes 10 years from start to finish, the service or space product that the government ultimately receives might be obsolete, unfortunately, given the rapid pace of innovation, and since other countries or individuals might have more advanced systems.”
What will also be key will be providing Canada its own independent launch capability, stressed Stephen Matier, president and CEO of MLS, which is expanding and operating a launch facility in Nova Scotia for private customers. In 2023, Canada’s government said it would consider launching rockets to space on a case-by-case basis, eventually overturning decades of relying on countries’ launch vehicles; in the long run, the regulations will be updated to streamline approvals between departments, government representatives pledged then.
Matier said approvals for launch need to come quickly. “We’re behind the other Five Eyes countries, for sure. We started ahead, and the U.K.’s leapt ahead of us. It has a technology safeguard agreement,” he said. “It has the regulatory framework. It’s been making investments in the infrastructure for space for development, even though it’s on the wrong side of the pond for launching a satellite.”
He noted that Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and adjacent Kennedy Space Center, both near Orlando on the Atlantic Coast, is normally maxed out with launch capability since there are on average two events a week. Moreover, the zone is a “sitting duck” if a Category 5 hurricane comes through and causes damage. Even when things are going well, delays arise because only so much traffic can be handled in that zone: “We’ve had to wait to launch satellites into orbit by a year or two because of a priority call by the U.S. government. Having our own priority for a launch capability and providing backup to the United States or a replacement if they’re taken out are kind of the three main [reasons]”, Matier said.
Part 1: Canada Outlines Strategy for Space Defence in Face of Russian, Chinese Military Posturing
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