Maritime Launch Services (MLS) is a Canadian space transport services company founded in 2016 and headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. MLS is building a commercial launch facility near Canso, Nova Scotia called Spaceport Nova Scotia. Two sub-orbital flights have been launched from this site.[1]
On 14 March 2017, MLS selected Canso, Nova Scotia as its launch site. MLS applied to lease 15 hectares of land outside the town from the provincial Department of Natural Resources.[4] The launch site is approximately 3.5 km south of Canso, with the Vehicle Processing Facility located approximately 2 km south-west of Canso.[5]
The $110 million rocket spaceport was originally planned to launch commercial satellites into space with the Ukrainian medium-lift Cyclon-4M launch vehicle, with a goal for up to eight launches annually.[6] After further delays, MLS received final approval for construction in August 2022 and began work in September 2022.[7]
MLS President and CEO Stephen Matier claimed that MLS was aiming to conduct a suborbital launch NET Q2 2023, before further developing the site to accommodate Cyclone-4M.[8] The site is slated to include a 10 to 15 metre-tall control centre and rocket assembly facility, with a launch pad positioned 2.4 kilometres away, linked by a custom rail system for rocket transportation.[9] It will be the only operational spaceport in Canada, after the abandonment of the Churchill Rocket Research Range in the 1990s, and the first commercial spaceport for orbital launches in the country.[9] It was estimated that construction of the spaceport would take three or four years to complete, but the first pad was not ready until 2024.[4]
Launch History
First launch
The first rocket launch that occurred from Spaceport Nova Scotia was the Goose 3 amateur rocket developed by Arbalest Rocketry, a student group from York University. The Goose 3 rocket's first launch attempt occurred on 5 July 2023, but was delayed by one day, due to weather. Goose 3 was successful launched on 6 July 2023, but did not pass the Kármán line into space, reaching 13.4 kilometers.[10]
Second launch
The second rocket launch that occurred from Spaceport Nova Scotia was the Barracuda hypersonic test platform by T-Minus Engineering. Two Barracudas were originally scheduled to be launched in October 2025, this was reduced to one Barracuda due to T-Minus Engineering not having completed the second rocket, and the launch was delayed to a 18-24 November 2025 launch window due to a European port strike.[11] The Barracuda was successful launched on 20 November 2025, but did not cross the Kármán line.[12]
Launch Vehicles
Cyclone-4M graphic
Cyclone-4M
MLS originally planned to utilize the Ukrainian-built Cyclone-4M medium-lift launch vehicle designed by Pivdenne Design Office.[13] It was expected to use a first-stage derived from the Soviet-era Zenit launch vehicle. It was to be powered by four Ukrainian-built RD-870 kerosene/LOX engines. These engines were originally designed for the vacuum of space on a second-stage for Soviet-era rockets.[14][15] The upper stage stack was developed from the original hypergolic Cyclone 4 rocket. The first launch of the Cyclone-4M was originally expected to take place at Canso in 2025.[16] However, because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the uncertainty the prolonged war caused, MLS terminated the agreement to launch Cyclone from Spaceport Nova Scotia in third quarter 2024.[17]
Before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, MLS originally had planned to launch eight Cyclone-4M rockets annually. The launch site has two southward launch orbital inclination options:
Option 1 is a Sun-synchronous orbit launch between 600–800km in altitude, for smaller satellites, with a payload up to 3350kg for $45 million USD.
Option 2 is an equatoriallow-Earth orbit launch, below 600km in altitude, that will allow a payload up to 5000kg also for $45 million USD.[18]
Skyrora XL graphic
Skyrora XL
In September 2022, Maritime Launch Services signed a Letter of Intent with the UK-based company Skyrora to launch that company's Skyrora XL small class launch vehicle from Spaceport Nova Scotia.[19]
Barracuda
In June 2025, Maritime Launch Services reached an agreement with the Dutch company T-Minus Engineering to perform two launches of that company's Barracuda hypersonic test platform from Spaceport Nova Scotia in October 2025.[20] The Barracuda was first successful launched from Spaceport Nova Scotia on 20 November 2025, with another launch expected in 2026.[12]
Aurora-8
In August 2025, Maritime Launch Services reached an agreement with the Quebec-based firm Reaction Dynamics (RDX) to launch that company's Aurora-8 small-class orbital launch vehicle from Spaceport Nova Scotia no earlier than 2028.[21]
↑MLS Staff (2019). "Cyclone 4M". Maritime Launch Services. Halifax, Nova Scotia. Archived from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
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