The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has signed a launch services agreement with Exolaunch for its CUBICS Initiative, a follow-on program to the successful Canadian CubeSat Project.
The CubeSats Initiative in Canada for STEM, known as CUBICS, was introduced in 2022 and selected an initial nine university projects which received $3.15M in June of 2023. Then last August the CSA issued a request for proposals for the launch.
On Monday, March 24 Berlin based Exolaunch announced that they had been selected to deploy nine 3U CubeSats. The CSA has the option for additional missions through mid-2028.
For the Canadian CubeSat Project the CSA had chosen Nanoracks but this time opted for Exolaunch. The company bills itself as a “launch mission management, integration and satellite deployment services” and has a variety of satellite deployers which are used primarily on SpaceX rideshare missions.
For the CSA, Exolaunch will use the EXOpod Nova deployers as illustrated here.
Exolaunch said in their news release that “In the coming months, CSA will host technical meetings, where Exolaunch will engage with the participating universities, review student presentations, and gather mission requirements to optimize the integration and deployment process.”
Robert W. Sproles, chief executive officer at Exolaunch said, “We are thrilled to expand Exolaunch’s global presence into Canada by working with one of the country’s most distinguished government agencies. CSA’s CUBICS program is an incredible initiative that not only encourages CubeSat innovation, but also empowers ambitious students to gain real-world spaceflight experience. At Exolaunch, we are deeply committed to making space more accessible, and we are honored to provide our flight-proven EXOpod Nova deployers to ensure these CubeSats reach orbit safely and successfully. We look forward to supporting CSA and the brilliant teams behind these projects.”