Ontario-based NordSpace is celebrating a major milestone after its first satellite successfully reached orbit and began operating as planned, although the spacecraft got there the same way Canadian satellites generally do today: aboard a SpaceX rocket from the United States.
NordSpace’s Terra Nova pathfinder satellite launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission, which also carried Google’s first Project Suncatcher prototype satellite, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, last week.
“It’s operating successfully. Everything’s looking great,” NordSpace CEO Rahul Goel told CTV News. “It’s a huge milestone for us.”
Terra Nova was designed, built and tested by NordSpace in about nine months. It carries an electric thruster and AI-powered cameras, with planned testing focused on applications including wildfire detection and Arctic monitoring.
NordSpace has secured more than $14 million in announced government funding and financing, including an $8.3 million National Defence grant and $5 million in federal and Newfoundland and Labrador support for its Atlantic Spaceport Complex.
Interestingly, CTV News spends most of its report highlighting the Canadian satellite and NordSpace’s ambitions before getting to a fairly important detail near the bottom: SpaceX actually put it into orbit.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse rocket carried Terra Nova alongside roughly 130 other payloads. Asked about relying on SpaceX, Goel acknowledged the reality of Canada’s current launch capability.
“It’s pretty much our only option,” he said, adding Canada remains a couple of years away from having domestic rockets capable of carrying satellites to orbit.
That reality isn’t unique to NordSpace, as Ottawa-backed satellite projects are also still relying on SpaceX, including Telesat’s planned Arctic satellite launches aboard Falcon 9 rockets.
NordSpace is building its Atlantic Spaceport Complex near St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador, but the permanent orbital infrastructure is still under development. The company says construction and design work continues on Space Launch Complex 01, which is intended to support its future Tundra orbital rocket. NordSpace itself is targeting orbital launches around an ambitious timeline of 2028.
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