Building on the recent unveiling of its Advanced Manufacturing for Aerospace Lab, NordSpace has expanded its footprint again with the launch of a new Space Systems Lab (SSL).
The company said in a news release that with the SSL it’s “marking the company’s expansion from launch vehicles and spaceport infrastructure into the development of complete spacecraft and on-orbit sensing capabilities.”
The first project being developed at the SSL is the Terra Nova mission the company had previously mentioned earlier in the year at the Canadian Space Launch Conference.
The self-funded Terra Nova mission is a “dual-use defence and commercial demonstration satellite which has been under development for the last year.”
NordSpace says the “new lab consists of in-house test facilities such as a thermal vacuum chamber, vibration table, ISO5 clean room and more, and is led by several engineers with previous experiences building space systems.”
Terra Nova will also incorporate its own Zephyr-EP, a small stackable electric propulsion demonstrator hall effect thrusters producing ~50 mN of thrust, and will use its Chronos Camera Imager for Earth observation an situational awareness with on-edge Al image processing.
Rahul Goel, Chief Executive Officer of NordSpace said, “Our Space Systems Lab and Terra Nova represent a deliberate and necessary expansion of our capabilities which we have been working on for well over a year. Building spacecraft in parallel with our launch vehicles ensures that we can support customers throughout the entire mission lifecycle while developing real in-space expertise and new business growth opportunities. The most successful space launch companies, ranging from SpaceX to Rocket Lab, distinctly invest in and develop space systems capabilities and private infrastructure, enhanced by their launch capabilities. For the same reason, the end-to-end nature of NordSpace’s mission is a strategic imperative, and we are just getting started.”
The Terra Nova mission is manifested by ExoLaunch for the SpaceX Transporter-17 mission scheduled for NET June 2026.