The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) want a Canadian university or research institute to host Spaceship Canada, a student-and-early-career research team that would be the fifth of its kind, according to a call for expression of interest posted Sept. 29. Responses are due Nov. 11.
Each Spaceship is a small team of students, graduate trainees, PhD researchers and postdoctoral fellows who build working prototypes of exploration technology, guided by experienced engineers and, at times, astronauts. ESA describes the approach as “skunk works,” meaning fast, low-cost projects that aim to produce a breadboard, a prototype or a demonstration.
Four Spaceships now run in Europe: at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre, at its ECSAT site in Britain, at the French space agency CNES, and at Poznań University of Technology in Poland. ESA’s exploration preparation, research and technology team, known as ExPeRT, directs them.
A network of centres
Spaceship Canada would work differently. The call says it would bring together “a handful” of Canadian centres, each known for a specific field, under the governance of the CSA and ESA. Respondents are asked to say how they would work with both agencies and with the other Spaceships.
There are six themes: automation and robotics; crew health and living off Earth; advanced manufacturing; space resources; disruptive technologies, including artificial intelligence and extended reality; and energy for exploration. ESA says projects should sit at low technology readiness levels, meaning early concepts well short of flight hardware.
Hosts are asked to describe their workspace, labs, fabrication and testing, how they would recruit researchers (internships have been a major route elsewhere), and how teams could make small purchases. ESA also asks about continuity: whether a host could sustain a recurring program, and whether it would work on project ideas the CSA brings from across Canada.
Money and timing
The call is not a funding opportunity. ESA says it is an information-gathering exercise that commits neither agency to choose a host, sign a contract or provide money. A later stage would formalize Spaceship Canada “subject to the necessary arrangements and resources.”
Some respondents may be invited to a one-hour interview, in person at the CSA’s Saint-Hubert, Que., headquarters or by video, with representatives of the CSA, ESA and CNES. The interview window is Nov. 2 to 13. That opens nine days before responses close, and the call does not explain how interviews will start before all responses are in.
Responses go through ESA’s Open Space Innovation Platform, which requires registration.
Canada’s stake
Canada is a Cooperating State with ESA, under an agreement renewed in 2019 for 10 years. At ESA’s ministerial council in November 2025, Canada committed $664.6 million to ESA, of which $122.3 million went to space exploration through the European Exploration Envelope Programme, or E3P, ESA’s optional program for Moon and Mars work. The call lists “Canadian engagement with E3P” among its evaluation criteria.
Other criteria include alignment with the Spaceship approach, mentors and recruitment plans, facilities, willingness to share governance with the CSA and ESA, and institutional commitment.
Under ESA’s geo-return rule, the value of contracts awarded to a country is meant to roughly match what the country contributes. SpaceQ reported in June that Canada’s contribution has already opened two lunar opportunities to Canadian organizations. This call does not say whether Spaceship Canada would be paid for from that money.