What Trump’s Space Superiority Order means for Canadian industry
On Dec. 18, the White House quietly signed an executive order on “Ensuring American Space Superiority.” It barely registered in the media, including here in Canada, but it should have. For starters, the United States has committed to installing a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon within four years. Do we have your attention? Stay with us.
If you read Texture’s last U.S. analysis piece a few weeks ago, you know the National Security Strategy (NSS) is the source code for Trump’s foreign policy. The Space Superiority order is a companion to the NSS, and it tells you what Washington wants to put in orbit and on the moon over the next five years, who is expected to pay for it, and how allies like Canada may fit in. It also builds on a strategic shift Republicans are making with voters ahead of the 2026 midterms. Trying to sell American foreign policy successes such as the strike on Iran, or the strike on Venezuela, as the President’s poll numbers on domestic issues take a hit. Expect to hear about American space dominance, continental missile defence, and an industrial boom fuelled by the commercialization of space as we get closer to November.
This order is also about the Golden Dome. On the Canadian side of the border, it may reprise the 51st state rhetoric. Recall Trump’s Truth Social post in May 2025: “I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation, but will cost ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State.”
You do not need to believe that Trump and the United States can or will do what the NSS aims to do to take this order seriously. You do need to know that Trump and the United States will be allocating billions of dollars and positioning its mining, defence and tech policies with this plan. You can expect that Mark Carney’s forthcoming (DIS) Strategy — due to be released any day now — may include a response to the Space Superiority plan.
The brief: Golden Dome in orbit
Trump’s Space Superiority executive order locks in four priorities.
First, the United States will be back on the moon by 2028, lay the foundations for lunar economic development, and prepare for the journey to Mars. It will deploy initial pieces of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030 and establish a commercial pathway to replace the International Space Station by the same date – which will have international implications given the current ISS is owned by Canada, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan, and the U.S. This leaves us wondering what will happen to the decommissioned ISS and who will own the replacement. Meanwhile, Artemis, the United States’ moon-to-Mars plan, is now presidential policy, with the space between Earth and the moon treated as the new high ground for American power.
Second, the Pentagon must demonstrate next-generation missile defence technologies by 2028 and build a responsive national-security space architecture able to detect and counter threats from very low Earth orbit through the Earth-moon region, including any other government’s attempt to place nuclear weapons in orbit. That is the Golden Dome with a space layer baked in. Allies are expected to increase space security spending, sign basing agreements, deepen operational cooperation, and invest directly in America’s space industrial base. In addition to increased spending on space security, basing agreements will be especially important for Canada as the most useful ground sites for this infrastructure are on our soil.
Third, the Secretary of Commerce and NASA are tasked with attracting at least US$50 billion of additional investment into American space markets by 2028, speeding up launches with new and upgraded facilities, and overhauling procurement to favour “commercial solutions,” off-the-shelf tech and flexible contracts. Every regulatory, telecom and spectrum, and standards lever is being pulled to make the U.S. the default jurisdiction for space capital.
Fourth, the order establishes a National Initiative for American Space Nuclear Power within 60 days and sets out to deploy nuclear reactors on the moon and in orbit, including a lunar surface reactor ready to launch by 2030. It also aims to put the U.S. in the driver’s seat on space traffic management, debris mitigation, positioning and timing, and spectrum policy. In plain English: Washington plans to write the rules for how orbits are used, how traffic is policed, and which services everyone else buys.
What this means for Canada at 50,000 feet
The Golden Dome is actively being planned, we know this from Trump’s executive order in January 2025 that set the administration to work on achieving an Iron Dome for America similar to Israel’s. The project was shortly thereafter rebranded the Golden Dome. Any serious North American shield will rely on northern sensors, communications and, potentially, interceptors on Canadian territory. This order gives the Pentagon and intelligence community timelines and authority to start building, which means Ottawa has to decide what “inside the Dome” looks like on Canadian terms and not just react to the next Trump soundbite.
Trump also wants allied space spending to flow into American markets and primes. The order calls for “ally and partner investments in America’s space industrial base,” which isn’t subtle. Canadian firms in launch, robotics, satellites, optics, software, quantum, cyber and nuclear can win work in a North American stack, but only if they show up with U.S. partners and footprints already thought through. So far, Canada is functionally absent from the Golden Dome. In an announcement on Dec. 2 by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, about a thousand companies were selected to move forward with proposals that could support the Golden Dome and are now eligible to receive funding from a pool of US$151 billion that has not yet been allocated. But only a handful had any Canadian connections.
In an environment where Canada is already struggling to keep Canadian tech in Canada, this executive order puts us further behind if we don’t move quickly to keep our best and brightest. This also forces a hard look at Canadian values. We have spent decades arguing against the weaponization of space and for responsible behaviour in orbit. Now our closest ally is racing toward space-based missile defence, nuclear reactors on the moon and in orbit, and a standards push that will ensure space is commercialized and militarized. If we want in, our government will need to sell Canadians a new narrative.
Risks and opportunities
For Canadian businesses and industry associations, being late to this file means being slotted as a buyer of U.S. systems rather than a partner. It means watching our best engineers and founders pulled into U.S. space hubs, and discovering that key standards on traffic, debris and spectrum were written without us.
But this order also singles out the exact areas where Canada already leads, like robotics and automation, AI and quantum for space, communications and sensing in the Arctic, nuclear engineering, advanced manufacturing, and satellite services. It creates demand for ground infrastructure, data centres, cyber- and quantum-secure networks, and northern test ranges – all things Canada can host and help build. The trick will be positioning our companies as the trusted North American capacity that makes the architecture work.
Trump’s National Defense Strategy (NDS) has not yet been publicly released, but its sister document, the National Security Strategy (NSS) includes a heavy emphasis on Western hemispheric dominance. The world watched this play out in Venezuela in the early days of 2026. If the NSS told us how Trump sees the world, the NDS will tell us more about how he plans to achieve his goals. This space order was another piece of the puzzle. It sets out what he wants in place by 2028, and it will shape budgets, procurement, and campaign speeches throughout 2026 and beyond.
Those who read these orders and strategies as a roadmap – and move now – will have a better chance of being in the room when decisions are made.
What to do in January
For Canadian industry, early 2026 is the time to map where this space order and the broader NSS touch your business or sector, and how you could be either part of the solution, or where you need to mitigate negative impacts, depending on Canada’s level of involvement.
Now is the time to refresh your Ottawa and Washington talking points, so you are speaking the same language as these orders and strategies. Canada’s DIS will align with NATO’s five per cent spending target and directly or indirectly address the American Space Superiority Golden Dome plans.
Map sector overlaps and integrations now. For example, those with interests in the Ring of Fire should be plotting out how to talk about NASA’s upcoming commercial pathways, and how Canada’s critical minerals strategy underpins Canada’s role.
You have one, likely final, opportunity for government relations targeting the Department of National Defence (DND) and Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) in the context of influencing the DIS. As DND and ISED may be making their final adjustments to the DIS, leverage this opportunity to talk about where Canada can or already is leading, and where sovereign interests can be protected. Once it is released, there may be a short comment period, but that is not a guarantee.
And it’s the moment to start pressing Ottawa for a coherent Canadian space industrial strategy that links the DIS, critical minerals, telecom and spectrum policy, nuclear, and the Canadian Space Agency into a single story about Canadian agency in the new space race.
The Texture team can shape narratives that build support for your project. We’re a battle-tested team of top political advisors and communicators doing high-impact advocacy communications. Our team moves quickly and with precision, driving conversations, building trust, and moving the needle in the media, in the boardroom, and with governments.
Interested in reading the full Executive Order? You can find it here.
