Ottawa, ON – Brig. Gen. Chris Horner, Commander, 3 Canadian Space Division, Department of National Defence, was a keynote speaker at the 2024 Space Bound conference on Wednesday, September 25.

General Horner took the opportunity to introduce himself to the space community after assuming the role as Commander, 3 Canadian Space Division at the beginning of July of this year.

He succeeded Brig. Gen. (Ret’d) Michael Adamson who had until recently been Commander 3 Canadian Space Division/Joint Force Space Component Commander who provided the introduction.

General Horner showed wit, demonstrated he was a straighter talker and also showed his human side.

He touched on many themes including the current international order, the dangers we’re all facing, including saying “It’s not my job to terrify Canadians” and that “Canadians assume space is always there,” and that they’ll keep going on assuming it’s always there.

He also mentioned that a strategy for National Defence is forthcoming this fall along with a Defence Space Strategy. He spoke candidly about China’s capabilities, Russia and nuclear weapons in space.

Towards the end he mentioned Canadian capabilities, strategic objectives, priorities, and operating across four national domains, shifting paradigms, investing in surveillance of space, and particularly important for this audience, commercial space integration strategy.

He concluded by saying space is hard, space is awesome, please dream the impossible and we have the watch.