SpaceQ Space news and analysis.
NordSpace plans to spend $5 million for Spaceport Canada’s first stage of development or Phase A, to provide a platform for the company’s Tundra orbital launch vehicle and partner vehicles in the future, the company announced today.
The site of the spaceport has not yet been identified, nor a launch date released, but NordSpace emphasized it has been meeting with local communities and governments as well as visiting several potential sites in person. Preliminary applications and work on matters ranging from rezoning to permitting to land acquisition is ongoing. The location will be announced ahead of NordSpace’s second experimental suborbital vehicle launch, as the rocket will lift off from the new spaceport.
“Our nation is at an absolutely critical point in time, where our sovereignty, our environment, our defense, our economy, they’re all hanging in the balance because without access to space, the country doesn’t work. The world doesn’t work anymore. So that’s why we’re moving so fast,” NordSpace CEO Rahul Goel told SpaceQ.
“Our goal is to create an end-to-end capability for Canada and certainly the rest of the world. Very much like Rocket Lab,” Goel said, citing the U.S. small launch company that operates from both Virginia and New Zealand. “It’s a big source of inspiration for us where we build, operate and fly small satellites, [with] a spaceport and launch vehicles all under one roof to maximize efficiency, minimize cost and capture the whole value chain.”
The money is coming entirely from NordSpace’s owners, according to Goel, and as a private investment “it’s going to move really fast” as it is the company itself taking on the initial financial and technical risk. The goal is to eventually match funding with provincial and federal funding programs “to multiple the benefit,” he said.
This would be the second major announcement for launch pad activity in Canada in recent years, with the second being the ongoing evolution of Maritime Launch Systems’ Spaceport Nova Scotia launch zone in Canso (northeast of Halifax and near the Atlantic Ocean coast.) Canada is the only nation among the G7 without independent launch capability, currently launching most satellites and missions from the United States.
Goel said that he anticipates multiple new spaceports around the world popping up in the coming years, which indeed matches indications in locations such as the United Kingdom and Europe. The key differentiator for any successful spaceport in this fast-growing market, he said, is not only providing launch capabilities but also an “end-to-end launch architecture” in the vein of NordSpace’s goals.
While other locations may not have to deal with winter cold as Canada does, Goel said the fundamental issue of sovereignty remains key to so much business in Canada. “It’s like literally having no airports in Canada, and having to pay for a rental car to drive across the border and pay for tolls every time you want to fly somewhere. That’s what our satellite companies in Canada are doing right now.”
In January 2023, the Canadian government agreed to approve space launches in Canada on a case-by-case basis while working to streamline the complex regulations surrounding Canadian rocketry activities. Canada has lacked independent launch capability for a generation and with the small satellite market demand growing considerably, including applications for defence, there have been calls for independent launch capability within Canada for years now.
NordSpace plans two launch pads at Spaceport Canada, called Pad A and B, and says they will offer orbital inclinations of between 45 to 95 degrees. This range covers both equatorial and polar orbits and may be the largest offering of orbital trajectories available in North America, according to NordSpace.
Pad A would be used for Tundra, which has about two percent the capacity of a typical Falcon 9 rocket, according to Goel. He said that would be enough for Canada’s needs, as we do not have demand for heavy launch vehicles such as in the United States.
Pad B would be for potential U.S. launch partners. The U.S. vehicles would be acquired under a technology safeguards agreement – a bilateral treaty between the United States and Canada – and may include entities such as the U.S. Space Force, the U.S. Department of Defense and Space Systems Command, who have all been seeking more rapid launch capabilities in recent years.
NordSpace acknowledged the support of Transport Canada, NAV Canada, Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Space Agency in getting their plans for the spaceport ready.
Earlier this year NordSpace announced that they had finished their first test of a flight-ready rocket engine and planned the launching to suborbital space later in the year.
