Mark Carney

Mark Carney became Prime Minister of Canada in March 2025 after winning the Liberal Party leadership following Justin Trudeau's resignation. A former Governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, Carney came to office as a technocratic economist rather than a career politician, with his public profile built on monetary policy and climate finance. On Day 8 of the Artemis II mission, he called all four crew members, described the mission as "a unique example for the world and beyond", told mission specialist Jeremy Hansen he was proud to hear French spoken from space, and invited the entire crew to visit Canada.

The call was freighted with context. It came nine days after the US cancelled Lunar Gateway, leaving Canada's $1 billion Canadarm3 contract with MDA Space without a confirmed deployment target. Canada's participation in Artemis followed the same logic as its ISS contribution: provide hardware (Canadarm and Canadarm2), receive guaranteed crew access. Jeremy Hansen is Canada's first deep-space astronaut, flying under that arrangement. Without Gateway, the framework that secures Canada further crew access beyond Artemis II is unresolved.

Carney's call represented the Canadian government's first public response to the Gateway cancellation's effect on Canada's space programme. The call itself was diplomatic signal rather than policy: no announcement, no statement on Canadarm3, no comment from the Canadian Space Agency. MDA Space, meanwhile, launched its commercial Skymaker robotic arm product line on 6 April, repurposing Canadarm3-derived technology for commercial customers while the government's institutional position remained silent.