Canada’s across-the-board dependence on space-based technology, multiple threats against this reliance, and the need for government/industry partnerships to confront these threats were among the messages delivered by the “Innovation in Defence – Leveraging Commercial Space Capabilities” panel at Spacebound 2023.
The panel took place on day two of the annual Space Canada conference, which was packed with audience members and timely topics. Spacebound 2023 was held at Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Nature October 18-19, 2023.
“We all need to really realize how depending we are on space capability, and this is not just for the CAF’s (Canadian Armed Forces) deployed forces at home and abroad, but also all Canadians,” said Colonel Catherine Marchetti, Commander of the RCAF’s 7 Wing (Space). “My second message is about the threats out there. In the last few years they’ve grown exponentially. And the last point is really we’re all in this together. The defence sector, the rest of the government, academia, commercial partners — we’re on this together, along with our allies. And if we continue to work together, then we will win.”
Jordan Miller, Calian’s marketing lead for global defence and training solutions, expanded on Col. Marchetti’s first point. “Everybody in this room, whether they know it or not, is impacted by space,” he said. “I’m talking research and development into the capabilities, manufacturing to build ’em, launch to put them into space, and operations to make sure they stay there. And then there are legal implications, government policies and things that can be done against threat actors. There’s just this like a hundred threads going in every which direction that impact space. If you think you’re not impacted, you should probably think about that again.”
Michèle Beck, Telesat’s SVP of Canadian Sales, had a different message for Spacebound 2023; namely that governments should be relying on private sector partnerships to achieve their space goals. “Telesat has been at this for 50-some years,” she said. “We have a company with expertise, depth, and knowledge. We have been working with the defence sectors both in Canada and the US for decades. We understand the requirements and we can help deliver the right solutions, the right capabilities at likely lower costs with greater speed agility than I think the government can do on their own.”
The final message came from panellist Howard Stanley, Eutelsat OneWeb VP for the Americas. “One takeaway for me that I’d like to leave you with is that, when you send somebody a file titled ‘Headshot’, you should open it and look at it before you hit send at 2 (am),” he quipped.
After the laughter subsided, Stanley got serious about the need for governments to fund commercial space startups. “OneWeb was partly funded by the UK government,” he said. In fact, the UK government bailed OneWeb out of bankruptcy in 2020 in partnership with Bharti Global for $1 billion. This saved the company, which completed its 634 LEO global internet constellation in May 2023 and is now part of Eutelsat.
“The UK government recognized that this kind of foundational investment would be important,” concluded Stanley. As a result, OneWeb is “available now, and there’s an opportunity for Canadian government to access a global network to accelerate their use of communication services because everything in the world is connected.”
- Read our previous stories from the annual Spacebound conference.