Federal government announces creation of National Space Council

Canada's space sector re‐ ceived a boost from the federal government in its budget, both in terms of money and vision.

The 2024 budget included a proposal for $8.6 million in 2024-25 to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the Lunar Exploration Accelera‐ tor Program (LEAP), which in‐ vests in technologies for hu‐ manity's return to the moon and beyond.

In addition to the funding, the federal government also announced the creation of a National Space Council, which will be "a new wholeof-government approach to space exploration, tech‐ nology development, and re‐ search."

For Space Canada, an or‐ ganization comprised of roughly 80 space sector com‐ panies including some of Canada's largest, such as Magellan Aerospace and MDA Space, it was a welcome announcement.

"We've been advocating for it since the inception of our organization, and we were really very happy, and we applaud the federal gov‐ ernment's commitment an‐ nounced in the budget," said Brian Gallant, CEO of Space Canada.

Gallant said that invest‐ ment in space is an invest‐ ment in Canada.

"Two-thirds of space sec‐ tor jobs are STEM jobs. These are good paying solid jobs for Canadians. And on top of that, we have approximately $2.8 billion that is injected in‐ to the Canadian economy be‐ cause of the space sector," he said.

The U.S. formed its Na‐ tional Space Council in 1989, but it was disbanded in 1992 and reestablished in 2017.

In the 2023 budget, the government announced pro‐ posed spending of $1.2 bil‐ lion over 13 years, that was to begin in 2024-25, to the CSA's contribution of a lunar utility vehicle that would as‐ sist astronauts on the moon. The as-yet-developed vehicle could help astronauts move cargo from landing sites to habitats, perform science in‐ vestigations or support them during spacewalks on the surface of the moon.

It also proposed to invest $150 million over five years for the LEAP program.

MDA Space, the company behind Canadarm, was also pleased with the announce‐ ment.

"Canada has an enviable global competitive advantage in space and the creation of a National Space Council is crit‐ ical to Canada maintaining that leadership position," CEO Mike Greenley said in an email to CBC News.

"Space is now a rapidly growing, highly strategic and competitive domain, and there is a real and urgent need to recognize its impor‐ tance to the lives of Canadi‐ ans and to our economy and national security."

The next project for MDA is Canadarm3, which will be part of Lunar Gateway, a in‐ ternational space station that will orbit the moon. It will serve as a sort of jumping-off point for astronauts heading to the moon and eventually beyond.

"The Lunar Gateway is a great opportunity for Canada and for MDA Space to not on‐ ly provide the next genera‐ tion of Canadarm robotics but to clearly plant our flag as a core national and indus‐ try participant in the Artemis era," Greenley said.

Lunar Gateway is set to begin construction no earlier than 2025, according to NASA.