NorthStar Earth & Space has signed a $40 million contract to supply the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) with space surveillance data over the next 12 months. The agreement connects 3 Canadian Space Division with NorthStar’s network of sensors to give the RCAF a clearer picture of the traffic and potential threats in orbit.
Under the new contract, NorthStar will process millions of images and data points to predict how objects behave in orbit, supporting Canada’s national defence to protect both commercial and government assets.
“Our decisional advantage in both peacetime and conflict is built upon our ability to detect and differentiate threats from the responsible actors in space,” said RCAF Brig.-Gen. Christopher Horner. He added that NorthStar gives the armed forces a higher ground with its tracking services.
Stewart Bain, founder and CEO of NorthStar, noted the agreement highlights the value of the domestic commercial space sector. “Integrating NorthStar’s advanced scanning and detection capabilities will strengthen the mission readiness and national security objectives at the core of 3 CSD’s mandate,” Bain said.
This defence contract comes as NorthStar is preparing to go public on the New York Stock Exchange through a $300 million merger with Viking Acquisition Corp. The proceeds from that public listing will fund the deployment of a planned 52-satellite constellation. The company has launched four satellites to date with another eight scheduled to launch by Rocket Lab no earlier than late 2026.
The federal government has also increased its financial support for the company’s software development. Late last year, the Canadian Space Agency awarded NorthStar nearly $1 million to build systems capable of tracking unknown objects using large data sets. Shortly after, the NATO DIANA accelerator program selected the company to develop new ways to fuse space data together to help military commanders make better operational decisions.
With this new $40 million military deal, NorthStar has locked in a major customer just as it begins to scale its infrastructure. The ability to monitor orbit independently is a growing priority for the government. As global reliance on satellite networks deepens, having a domestic data provider ensures that Canada can watch over its own assets without relying entirely on foreign intelligence.