Canso is a community in Guysborough County, on the northeastern tip of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada, next to Chedabucto Bay. The town is of national historic importance because it was one of only two British settlements in Nova Scotia prior to the establishment of Halifax in 1749.
After decades of economic and population decline as a result of over-fishing, Canso ceased to be a separate town in 2012 and was amalgamated into Municipality of the District of Guysborough.
Canso, Nova Scotia.
2009 photo by Bardencj via Wikipedia
In March of 2017, Maritime Launch Services (MLS) Ltd., based in Halifax, announced that it had committed to developing a launch site near Canso, following a study of prospective sites across North America. An exhaustive review was conducted which assessed 14 potential locations over the previous year. Construction could start in early 2018.
Vernon Pitts, warden of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, said despite some residents’ doubts, the project is on track to create new jobs and revitalize the tourist industry. “We have to go down (that road) to see if the tree is going to bear fruit. All we can do is keep fertilizing it and keep watering it,” Pitts explains.
Pitts said that when he first heard about the proposal to build a spaceport, he was so taken aback he nearly fell off his chair, but the more he learned about the project, the more he felt that Canso might be a perfect fit. The now-defunct town has an abundance of land but could use more people, Pitts said, and an influx of rocket scientists could be the boost the community needs.
Maritime Launch Services Ltd (MLS) is well on its way to expanding the Canadian commercial space industry. With the rapidly growing global demand for space launch services, MLS will bring the long established and mature space launch technology of Ukraine to Nova Scotia. In cooperation with Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash in Ukraine, MLS will commercially develop and operate a highly competitive launch services company.
With the growing global demand for space launch services, MLS will bring the mature space launch technology of Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash in Ukraine to Nova Scotia. “Building on the historically close ties between Canada and Ukraine, and addressing the satellite constellation launch market with an all Ukrainian medium class (3350kg to SSO) launch service targeted at $45 million USD, are a few of the fundamental strengths of this program,” says John Isella, CEO of MLS. “The timing is perfect for this venture. Ukraine’s independent space industry, and the solid market for these launch services all add to our confidence in this program. The Cyclone 4M rocket will become the standard of the medium class space launch industry,” he added.
Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash in Ukraine, the providers of the launch vehicle, have been in operation for 62 years, have launched 875 rockets, and have built and launched over 400 spacecraft. Initial funding was obtained in 2016 from United PARADYNE Corporation (UPC) in Santa Maria, California. Joe Hasay, President/CEO of UPC, said “This program is just what UPC has been seeking in order to expand into commercial space launch operations.” UPC is a founding partner in MLS, and will bring extensive experience to launch site operations and satellite customer support.
MLS was formed with the intention of bringing together the necessary skills, assets, launch vehicle technology and infrastructure to serve the burgeoning commercial space launch requirements for satellites. MLS will leverage the highly reliable and proven launch vehicles designed by Yuzhnoye in Ukraine to bring their latest model Cyclone 4M to the North American market.
The Cyclone 4M occupies an under-served market segment which offers the most efficient lift capacity to address developing launch industry requirements. Constellation launch requirements dictate an optimum number of spacecraft be launched together. Both larger and smaller vehicle classes do not offer the most efficient mass utilization and launch price.
The Cyclone 4M provided by MLS and launched to a polar and/or sun synchronous orbit from Canso, Nova Scotia will serve this market. Cyclone 4M will be available for $45M USD per launch. It is suitable for Sun Synchronous Orbit applications and will allow a payload up to 3350 kilograms.
The technical and financial risks associated with Cyclone 4M are very low since it is based on a history of 221 successful launches of the Cyclone family and 875 missions of other launchers designed by Yuzhnoye and built by Yuzhmash. With a solid industrial base which is currently supporting commercial space customers including NASA’s International Space Station program, Sea Launch, and others, Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash are considered to be reliable, world-class aerospace firms.