5 things to know about Canada’s Space Strategy

Canada’s Space Strategy seeks to deliver on the promise of exploration, science excellence, innovation and jobs. Canada is:

1)     Going to the moon!

The Lunar Gateway is at the centre of our Space Strategy.

Canada will build an AI-enabled deep-space robotic system (Canadarm3) to help build and operate the Lunar Gateway. This will generate good, middle-class jobs in Canada, help grow innovative Canadian companies, and open up opportunities to conduct important new science in a unique lunar laboratory.

2)     Launching the Junior Astronaut Recruitment Campaign

The Junior Astronaut Recruitment Campaign aims to get Canadian kids excited about STEM and space. The JrARC will reach and inspire kids from Kindergarten to Grade 12, all across Canada through in-school and online activities. Kids will compete for a chance to train like an astronaut at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters!

3)     Using Space science to solve everyday challenges on Earth

Keeping astronauts healthy in deep space can help us improve medical best-practices right here on Earth, particularly in rural communities. We are also working with provinces and territories to improve the accessibility of food across Canada and hopefully one day we can use these practices to help astronauts grow food in space. Investing in low earth orbit satellites will allow us to connect more Canadians to high-speed networks as well.

4)     Harnessing the power of space to grow Canada’s economy

We want Canadian industry to benefit from the rapidly growing international space economy, forecasted to grow to $1.1 trillion in the next 20 years. Through the new Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program, we are investing $150 million over 5 years to help develop and demonstrate space technologies, creating and growing new businesses, right here, in Canada. We are also strengthening our relationship with other key space agencies to enable Canadian firms to enter global supply chains. Underpinning all this is modernizing our regulatory framework to keep pace with the sector.

5)     Using space-based data to support science and economic growth

Data collected from Canada’s space activity helps us make evidence-based decisions that keep Canadians safe, support a range of economic sectors, and allow us to remain key partners in global security and defense networks. Our space strategy will allow us to collect crucial climate change data, observe the earth from space, and support the ability of scientists and businesses to develop new innovative products.