In late January Polaris Aerospace released a white paper titled The Need For Canadian Sovereign Space Launch. At the Canadian Space Launch Conference, Neil Woodcock highlighted some of those points.
Watch Neil Woodcock’s discussing key points from the white paper:
Woodcock along with co-author Oleg Khalimonov provided nine action points in the paper:
- First, the Government of Canada should incorporate launch as part of a Whole-Value-Chain National Space Strategy;
- Second, the Government of Canada should adopt the measures recommended in Deloitte’s and Space Canada’s 2024 report;
- Third, Canada should accelerate and complete its modernized space launch regulations;
- Fourth, Canada should include space launch as part of its defence strategy, with additional funding earmarked for developing space launch technologies as well as for developing hypersonic and anti-hypersonic systems.
- Fifth, as the traffic jam at spaceports in the United States and the United States Space Force’s interest in Canadian spaceports show, launch sites are a critical element in maintaining a sovereign space launch capability.
- Sixth, the Government Canada should commit to being a first launch customer for aspiring launch companies.
- Seventh, the government should take steps to improve talent and capacity building initiatives for space launch.
- Eight, Space Canada and other space industry groups should adopt the framing of the Whole-Value-Chain Strategy, recognizing that their efforts are less effective in the long-term if they chose not to advocate for space launch as strongly as they advocate for other verticals of the Canadian space sector.
- Ninth, Industry members should include space launch in their lobbying to government as an important but missing component of Canada’s space industry.