Canada will invest in a spaceport and three young rocket systems as part of its push to build up sovereign launch capabilities, officials announced Monday.
Citing defense needs, the country will spend $200M CDN ($146M) over the next 10 years to lease a launch pad at a startup spaceport, operated by Maritime Launch Services (MLS). Canada also revealed the first-phase winners of its Launch the North competition for sovereign launchers.
Start me up: MLS will receive the first $20M CDN ($14.6M) in government cash by March 31, as the lease is retroactive to 2025, the company said in a separate statement. “The timing of payments supports near-term cash flow as the spaceport advances toward operations,” MLS officials added.
Canada has two early-stage spaceports—MLS’ Spaceport Nova Scotia, and NordSpace’s Atlantic Spaceport Complex, in Newfoundland and Labrador. MLS has hosted a couple of suborbital spaceflights, while NordSpace hopes its first will fly this year.
Looking up: Canada also selected three unflown orbital-rocket systems to receive a conditional $8.3M CDN (~$6M) each in development funds:
- NordSpace’s Tundra,
- Canada Rocket Company’s R-1,
- Aurora-8 from Reaction Dynamics—an investor in MLS.
It’s the first of several phases planned as part of the $105M CDN ($76.7M) Launch the North initiative to send Canadian payloads aloft from Canadian soil by 2028. Defense promises ride on that program succeeding: Canada also said Monday it would join the ~18-month-old NATO STARLIFT initiative for short-notice alliance launches.
Northern niche: While Canada announced modest space spending Monday against recent nine-figure fundraises for companies in the EU and US, it’s all part of the plan. Last year’s federal budget committed $182.6M CDN ($133.5M) over three years for sovereign launch. And Canada has always been known for niche space spending—like for its Canadarm program, still doing robotic-arm work in orbit after ~45 years of spaceflight.
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