{"id":260063,"date":"2025-11-04T02:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T02:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/260063\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T02:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T02:05:08","slug":"mda-invests-in-canadian-aerospace-company-developing-launch-site-for-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/260063\/","title":{"rendered":"MDA invests in Canadian aerospace company developing launch site for satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Stephen Matier, president and chief executive of Maritime Launch Services Inc., said the investment by MDA Space Ltd. is a \u2018momentum builder\u2019 for his company.DARREN CALABRESE\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

As Canada edges closer to domestic capacity for launching satellites, one of the country\u2019s largest aerospace companies has announced it is buying into the effort.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Brampton, Ont.-based MDA Space Ltd. MDA-T<\/a> announced it will make a $10-million equity investment in Maritime Launch Services Inc. MAXQ-NE<\/a>, at a price of $0.223 per share. MLS, a commercial aerospace company headquartered in Halifax, is developing a spaceport, or launch site, for satellite delivery services.<\/p>\n

The move comes just 10 days after MLS secured a $10-million loan from Export Development Canada to facilitate the construction of the company\u2019s spaceport near Canso, N.S., about 325 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital. <\/p>\n

Altogether, the capital infusion will boost MLS\u2019s goal of lofting satellites into orbit from Canada\u2019s Atlantic Coast as it vies for a place in a growing but competitive global market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complete momentum builder,\u201d Stephen Matier, the company\u2019s president and chief executive, told The Globe and Mail in an interview. \u201cThis really validates for us what we\u2019ve been working on all these years. At the end of the day it\u2019s about getting a sovereign launch capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ready for launch: The man behind the push to build Spaceport Nova Scotia<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada became the third nation after the United States and the Soviet Union to have a satellite orbit Earth in 1962, but that satellite flew on a U.S. rocket. To date, no satellite has ever been launched from Canada, and suborbital rocket flights for research purposes ended in 1998.<\/p>\n

More recently, with the advent of private spaceflight led by Space X and the promise of space-based broadband communications, a handful of aerospace startups have aimed to create launch facilities in Canada.<\/p>\n

Mr. Matier gained his expertise as a contractor for NASA and then as a consultant in the private space sector in New Mexico. He founded MLS in 2016 when he realized that Nova Scotia\u2019s location, far to the east of most of North America, is well positioned for launching satellites with highly inclined orbits that can provide global coverage.<\/p>\n

The company went public in 2022 and began construction at a site where it has secured a 40-year lease with the province. Plans were set back when Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine effectively cut off access to the rockets it was planning to use, built by a company in Dnipro, Ukraine, about 480 kilometres southeast of Kyiv.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day we had to shift our model because of the supply chain breakdown,\u201d Mr. Matier said.<\/p>\n

Since then, the company has focused on providing its clients with a launch site and a place to set up ground stations to link with satellites already in orbit. <\/p>\n

Later this month, Dutch company T-Minus Engineering BV is currently scheduled to attempt a suborbital launch test at the Canso location. If the test succeeds it will mark the first time this century that a rocket launched in Canada reaches space.<\/p>\n

MDA spokesperson Amy MacLeod said the company\u2019s investment in MLS comes at a time of increasing demand for sovereign launch capabilities in Canada \u2013 demand on which the company could one day capitalize.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect to become an operational partner at Space Nova Scotia which would allow us to support the development and future operations of the spaceport while also strengthening Canada space value chain,\u201d she said in an e-mail. <\/p>\n

Kevin Bryan is an associate professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto and chief economist at U of T\u2019s Creative Destruction Lab, which supports science-based startups. He said MDA\u2019s investment reflects a growing focus on Canadian space sovereignty. However, he said he was skeptical of the potential for domestic companies in a global industry dominated by Space X and expanding in India and China.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a very tough, very international market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MDA\u2019s stock dropped 25 per cent on Sept. 8<\/a> after U.S. telecom EchoStar cancelled its $1.8-billion satellite manufacturing contract with the company, and slid 15 per cent last Thursday<\/a> after media reports suggested it could be at risk of losing another contract worth $1.1-billion if American telecom Globalstar sells itself to Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX. <\/p>\n

MDA\u2019s shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange are down 3 per cent since the beginning of the year, but up 14 per cent from the same time last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Stephen Matier, president and chief executive of Maritime Launch Services Inc., said the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-260063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}