Maritime Launch Services announced significant funding from the province of Nova Scotia, just two months after its first spaceport launch.
The company and the spaceport received an initial qualification of more than $13 million from the Nova Scotia Capital Investment Tax Credit Program (CITC). The province states the CITC “is a refundable corporate tax credit that can be claimed for capital costs directly related to acquiring qualified property for use in Nova Scotia as part of an approved project.”
The CITC program threshold was recently increased by 25 percent, which is meant to cover eligible capital equipment projects of up to $400 million. The maximum tax credit will be $100 million per project, and MLS officials said in an announcement on Friday (Sept. 8) that they will apply for the full scope of this eligibility when the time is right.
“It is really a demonstration of the support from the provincial government in the work that we’re doing to bring the spaceport to life in Canso, Nova Scotia,” Stephen Matier, MLS president and CEO, told SpaceQ. Construction began at the spaceport a year ago and provincial officials were among the attendees at the first suborbital launch at the facility in July, featuring a York University rocket via Launch Canada, flying a small Saudi Arabian university experiment.
When asked what the funding means with regard to overall financing needs, Matier emphasized it will be a three-phase approach to the first orbital launch. Given the funding came in the first phase, “it is that signal from government that they are also on board. This is going to propel us over the next 15, 18 months towards our work towards an orbital launch.”
“This will help us with a lot of that facility support that we need, that infrastructure that is required to support the launch campaigns that we have coming up,” he added. Examples include an integration facility, tracking for the launch vehicle, the pad and satellite processing.
The company also expects significant hiring growth. They now have five full-time equivalent (FTE) positions and around 25 contractors from entities like Lindsay Construction and Stantec Engineering. But by the end of 2024, MLS expects to have 60 full-time jobs – yes, representing a 12-fold increase in FTEs.
“This funding is certainly a part of it,” Matier said when asked how such significant growth may be possible, “but we have a lot of strategic partners out there that we’re working with. I can’t really comment on the details, but they have skill sets within the country and outside the country– in the U.S. – that are looking at means to support us as well. So we’ll be drawing from the community here and from across Canada – some of the universities – to build out the team, as well as tapping into some expertise that exists outside the country.”
Next year’s plans include a suborbital launch around April with the company’s own rocketry and then another suborbital launch in July. More details on payloads and especially the vendors in the second launch will come later, Matier said, but the goal is to offer “some suborbital payload potential for universities and other government entities to be able to get their experiments onboard, and get them recovered.”
The orbital launch later in 2024 will require Transport Canada and the Government of Canada to stick to their pledge to review such activities “on a case-by-case basis,” as was promised in January. But Matier emphasized that MLS is in close touch with the government as it updates its launching activities and to assure the licence will be issued with the proper reviews, such as environmental. MLS has also been careful in recruiting allies from the local community, including Indigenous groups, along with the space community – such as the Canadian Space Agency.
The first orbital launch vendor has not been released. In 2025 or so, MLS plans orbital launches with Reaction Dynamics, a Quebec clean-tech rocket company whose rocket Aurora is advertised as the first orbital-capable hybrid rocket. Aurora also will have apatent-pending propulsion system that may use less fuel than similar engines. The company has partnered with Precious Payload, a “digital service for engineering teams planning to launch their satellite,” to match slots on the rocket with potential payloads.
Construction in Canso (three hours from Halifax) remains ongoing, with some roads already in place and a small concrete pad poured in the launch pad area. In the near future MLS plans a ground station for satellite and launch vehicle tracking, and some processing facilities. MLS also plans to open an office in Antigonish in the next year, and as such Matier emphasized the funding will have “rural and community impacts that are going to be really positive.”
Editor’s correction: MLS has not released who will be the first orbital launch vendor.