MDA Space has sky high aspirations for Canada’s space industry.
The Brampton-based company is investing $10 million in Nova Scotia’s aerospace company, Maritime Launch Service, to build a commercial spaceport.
“A spaceport is like an airport, but it’s for rockets,” Mike Greenley CEO of MDA Space told BNN Bloomberg in a Friday interview. “Multiple rocket operators would want to use that spaceport in the future to be able to launch things into orbit and gives Canada a domestic launch capability.”
The station is billed as Canada’s first commercial launch spaceport. Greenley said the site will be important for defence and sovereignty ensuring Canada has its own launch capabilities. He also said Nova Scotia is a good place for the spaceport.
“You’ll often see spaceports or launch sites being on coastlines, so that as you launch, you’re not going over the population,” said Greenley, adding the latitude location makes it attractive for orbital destinations and international customers."
He said it is advantageous to build outside of the United States to avoid competition and bottlenecks from U.S. based facilities, handle spikes in demand and attract countries preferring launches outside of America.
The project has faced delays due to the war in Ukraine affecting rocket manufacturing, regulatory hurdles from federal and provincial government and pushback from environmentalists.
Revenue for MDA Space rose 45 per cent compared with a year ago as the company reported $24.4 million in net income for its third quarter.
The company’s satellite systems business saw $283.5 million in revenue for the quarter, up from $167.6 million a year ago, while its robotics and space operations businesses earned $78.3 million in revenue.
MDA stocks plunged in September after the company lost a $1.8 billion contract with Echostar.
“The important part about it is, is that we are certainly compensated for all of our costs and liabilities that we’ve taken on and signing that contract to make sure that we’re kept whole,” said Greenley.
The company is also actively involved with Artemis moon exploration program led by the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The campaign will involve commercial and international partners to establish long-term presence on the moon while preparing humanity for missions to Mars.
“We are on a team in competition with NASA for the lunar terrain vehicle system,” said Greenley. “The winning team should be announced this fall. That is to put human rovers on the moon for people to drive around on.”
MDA Space is part of Lunar Dawn, which involves Lunar Outpost, a commercial robotics company, Leidos (which replaced Lockheed Martin), General Motors and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
MDA Space is specifically responsible for developing robotic arms and interfaces for the human-rated rover. Lunar Dawn and three other teams are in competition of a contract expected to be awarded by NASA by the end of the year after the finalists were selected for a $1 billion design study phase in April 2024.
Aside from a lunar terrain vehicle, one of the company’s biggest contracts is Canadarm3 for NASA’s Lunar Gateway mission, an autonomous robotic arm system for the lunar-orbiting space station.
“That’s a contract we have with the Canadian Space Agency to build, develop and deliver the robotic system for a gateway, which will be a new space station that will orbit the moon,” said Greenley. “That program is underway.”
