Newfoundland spaceport lands $20M access agreement with federal government

The company building a spaceport along Newfoundland and Labrador’s southern coast has landed a 10-year facility access agreement worth $20 million from the Department of National Defence.

The contract awarded to NordSpace Corp. was announced by National Defence Minister David McGuinty at Space Canada’s Space Bound Conference in Ottawa, according to an Oct. 21 release from the company.

NordSpace says the contract gives the federal department priority access to the launch pad currently under construction at St. Lawrence on Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula as well as priority call on NordSpace launch capacity when national security requires urgent deployment of payloads to orbit.

“Canada’s sovereignty doesn’t stop at the edge of our atmosphere,” McGuinty said in the release.

“This agreement is a concrete step toward ensuring Canada can launch critical defence capabilities from Canadian soil, on Canadian timelines. We’re backing Canadian innovation, strengthening our national security, and building the sovereign capabilities our Armed Forces need to defend Canada.”

NordSpace is building the Atlantic Spaceport Complex to launch its own rockets and satellite systems. Those will also carry software and hardware components being designed and built by the Markham, Ont.-based company.

According to NordSpace, the contract between National Defence and a Canadian company developing launch vehicles and spaceport infrastructure is the first of its kind.

The spaceport is not complete yet. NordSpace has built a pad from which it had planned to launch its suborbital Taiga rocket in late summer and fall 2025, but those attempts were thwarted by technical issues.

The company has been holding off on trying another Taiga test launch as it works to ensure all of its operations adhere to new authorizations regarding space flight under the Commercial Space Launch Act.

The hope is to get approval for a new launch window this year, with the company saying it is expecting news on this front in the “near term.”

In the meantime, NordSpace has begun the next phase of its project, building a six-kilometre access road to the site where its orbital launch pad will be constructed, along with various other main spaceport infrastructure.

The company has said it will be ready to launch its Tundra rocket into orbit in 2028.

The latest agreement with the federal government uniquely positions NordSpace in Canada’s sovereign launch effort, the company said.

“A sovereign spacefaring Canada needs the ability to launch a payload into orbit on its own schedule, from its own soil, on its own rocket when national security demands it,” Rahul Goel, NordSpace’s founder and chief executive officer, said in the release.

“That capability is only possible if a Canadian company owns the full stack from launch vehicle to launch pad, and that vertical integration is exactly what we are building at NordSpace and our Atlantic Spaceport Complex in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“…We are proud to be of service to Canadians to ensure that there is a Canadian-made rocket on a Canadian-owned launch pad with a Canadian-made spacecraft bus waiting, when the Canadian Armed Forces need it.”

NordSpace said the facility access agreement is designed to maintain and continuously harden the spaceport facilities and sustain the operational readiness required to execute secure responsive sovereign launch across the 10-year term.

The $20 million covers the minimum cost of maintaining the relevant facilities, systems, and standby readiness over the term and does not cover the cost of individual missions themselves, which are contracted separately as they are called.

“Over the next several years, NordSpace will prepare its facilities, vehicles, spacecraft, and operations for secure responsive launch, with the goal of delivering a fully Canadian, fully sovereign capability that DND can leverage on demand, from Canadian soil, on Canadian timelines, under Canadian control,” stated the company’s news release.

NordSpace said its intentions are to go beyond the baseline requirements of the agreement by building towards on-demand launch from the spaceport.

This, the company explained, would be achieved by maintaining a launch-ready Tundra-class vehicle paired with several of the company’s Aquila-class spacecraft buses that are available and on standby at the Atlantic Spaceport Complex.

“This standing posture is designed to allow any independent DND satellite, or any DND payload without a dedicated satellite host, to be integrated onto the Aquila bus, launched aboard Tundra, and operated on orbit within a target window of 24 to 72 hours from call-up, depending on the scope and complexity of the mission,” stated the company.

“The target responsiveness is only possible because NordSpace is vertically integrated and designs, builds, and operates the rocket, the spacecraft bus, the propulsion, the mission control systems, and the spaceport itself.

“A truly sovereign responsive launch capability cannot be assembled on short notice from a chain of foreign suppliers and third-party operators; it has to be owned, end to end, by a Canadian company operating under Canadian control.”

NordSpace is working closely with 3 Canadian Space Division (3 CSD) to understand DND’s responsive launch requirements and to plan the specific mission profiles, orbital regimes, payload interfaces, integration procedures, and operational timelines that the capability will support.

That division represents the Canadian Armed Forces’ operational space authority.

The company said the ongoing collaboration with 3 CSD ensures that NordSpace’s responsive launch capability is being purpose-built around the real operational needs of the Canadian space community rather than assumed requirements.

“The capability NordSpace is building under the (facility access agreement) is aligned with the kind of responsive sovereign launch that allied space powers are now treating as a baseline national security requirement,” noted the company, referencing several United States Space Force missions, including one flown in 2023 in which a payload was integrated and launched within 27 hours of call-up.