For most Canadians, space feels remote and irrelevant—the realm of astronauts and asteroids, not something that affects our daily lives. Many of us can barely see the night sky anymore. But space also hosts the invisible infrastructure that holds society together, facilitated by thousands of satellites. As geopolitical tensions rise, many countries are embarking on a space arms race to secure critical systems in orbit—the Carney government has indicated it will do the same. But more weapons aren’t going to make space safer; if Canada wants to protect itself up there, we need to invest in stability.

Daily life is powered by space tech. Satellites guide aircraft and ships, synchronize banking systems, map wildfires and storms, connect remote communities and keep energy and transportation networks running. Every time you check the weather, join a webinar, take a rideshare or call a loved one overseas, you’re using satellites. This doesn’t just apply at the individual level. Canada’s electricity grids, water systems, financial networks, air-traffic control and shipping routes all rely on space-based communications and monitoring.

Canada understood this potential earlier than most. With the 1962 launch of Alouette-1, we became the third country to operate a satellite after the U.S. and Russia. Space soon solved a ubiquitous Canadian problem: how to connect, monitor and serve a vast, rugged and sparsely populated country. Today, however, Canada operates only a small number of government satellites and a modest commercial fleet—less than 100, compared to 10,000-plus American ones. Our three RADARSAT Constellation Mission satellites provide Arctic surveillance and disaster-response imagery. Sapphire, our only dedicated military satellite, tracks objects in orbit. Defence Research and Development Canada has launched a few small Gray Jay satellites to test Arctic surveillance technologies; other missions are small and science-oriented.

Most of the satellites Canadians depend on aren’t our own. GPS signals come from U.S. satellites. Weather data comes from U.S. and European spacecraft. Broadband in the North is provided by a mix of foreign and domestic commercial operators. Earth-observation imagery often comes from allied or private systems. All of it flows through a small number of Canadian ground stations—many in remote locations—then into the networks that run banking, aviation, shipping and emergency services. It’s an efficient arrangement, but it leaves us dependent on infrastructure we do not fully control, which becomes problematic if those allied relationships erode. And when a single link fails, the consequences cascade quickly—like when one cluster of data centres went out in October, bringing down much of Amazon Web Services.

That fraught interdependence is why Ottawa is preparing to spend billions on new and upgraded........

© Macleans