CANSO: The president and CEO of Maritime Launch Services Ltd. (MLS), says it’s a game changer to receive funding that will allow them to achieve first flight heritage in 2022 of a small class launcher and mature the site and the Cyclone 4M medium class launch vehicle.
“The announcement is a key milestone in the advancement of our development plans of the launch site near Canso,” Steve Matier told The Reporter. “This is important because it’s a significant investment and a major step on our way to starting the site constriction.”
On May 11, MLS announced they had closed financing for gross proceeds of $10.5 million, which was led by Toronto investment bank PowerOne Capital Markets Limited and Primary Capital Inc.
“It’s gratifying certainly, to have the acknowledgement by the investment community at what this opportunity means for Canada,” Matier said. “There’s been such a change in the commercial launch industry and growth opportunities there for Canada and for us to be a part of that is important.”
He indicated MLS has already had a great deal of support from satellite clients and launch operators for Cyclone 4M medium-class lift-offs from their state-of-the-art complex near Canso, that will feature a control centre and launch pad.
According to a media release, MLS provides the necessary skills, assets, launch vehicle technology, and infrastructure to serve the rapidly growing commercial space launch requirements for satellites.
Leveraging highly reliable and mission-proven launch vehicles designed by Yuzhnoye, MLS will offer the most efficient lift capacity to address the launch requirements of the fast-growing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space industry worldwide.
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding with the technology we’re using, some people say we’re using old rockets, we’re using brand new rockets that are built on a heritage of many, many decades of experience,” Matier said. “They’re not old rockets that are pulled out of some silo somewhere and sent to Nova Scotia.”
With construction scheduled to begin this fall, MLS’ commercial launch complex will be the first of its kind in Canada.
Along with the creation of the launch site, MLS advised they are looking forward to hiring a talented team and contributing indirectly to economic growth, including local infrastructure improvements and increased tourism.
Strategically located near the village of Canso, MLS’ new spaceport launch facility will provide optimal launch trajectories from a range of polar to sun-synchronous orbits and will eventually have a planned launch cadence of approximately eight launches per year.
In 2019, the project received its environmental approval from the province; however it was contingent on a list of conditions.
“We had to produce a focus report instead of just the standard Nova Scotia environmental assessment,” Matier said. “There was a significant list of conditions that need to be addressed, and we are working on those. We’re continuing to make submissions and continuing to work on some of the reports that they’ve requested.”
Over the past nine months, officials with Strum Consulting have been at the site near Canso placing Crown land markers, and after receiving permission from the province, MLS will be able to begin initial road work.
Matier advised the civil construction contract had been awarded to Antigonish-based Nova Construction.
In January 2020, MLS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with StFX for research and rural economic diversification. Possible opportunities for research include fields of computer sciences, chemical analysis, environmental monitoring and aquatic resources.
One particular area Matier highlighted that could be of assistance to MLS is StFX’s FluxLab headed by David Risk, which is one of the best research labs in Canada for air quality monitoring.
This summer there is an open house and industry day scheduled but details will be confirmed a little closer to the date, as COVID-19 restrictions will need to be followed.
“On the global market right now, there’s a lot of folks with satellites that aren’t starting their businesses because they can’t get them into space when they want or where they want,” Matier said. “So having a way to do that and a location that’s in North America is a real benefit to the industry.”