The first steps toward new ground stations for NordSpace are underway as they’ve recently signed a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Newfoundland & Labrador-based C-CORE. With NordSpace’s Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) based in St. Lawrence, Newfound & Labrador and C-CORE roughly four hours away in St. John’s, the partnership bodes well for elevating the province’s presence in the Canadian space economy.
Per a joint press release by both companies, the initial planned locations include the ASX and Inuvik, Northwest Territories. The ground stations will focus on “supporting communications, telemetry, tracking, and control for satellites, launch vehicles, hypersonic flight vehicles, and other space and aerial systems critical to Canada’s strategic and commercial aerospace future.” Inuvik is notable due to its high-latitude position, ideal for tracking satellites and supporting missions in polar and Arctic regions.
This new capability supports NordSpace’s plans to develop its own hardware:
- Launch vehicles: Tundra (orbital launch vehicle)
- Satellites: (Terra Nova)
- Hypersonic flight vehicles: SHARP Arrow and SHARP Sabre (Supersonic and Hypersonic Applications Research Platform)
“With NordSpace’s bold mission to develop an end-to-end space missions capability in Canada, working with renowned partners like C-CORE who bring decades of experience developing and operating high performance and reliable infrastructure on the ground and in space is incredibly exciting” said Rahul Goel, CEO of NordSpace. “C-CORE’s collaboration will help ensure reliability of our commercial launch activities both at our spaceport, and in the high Arctic where Canadian sovereignty and security are under threat. These capabilities will also open new revenue streams for NordSpace and help further vertically integrate our space missions.
C-CORE is no stranger to working with other Canadian space firms. It has maintained a long-running partnership with Montréal-based GHGSat since 2013, providing ground-segment services for GHGSat’s methane-monitoring constellation. The company also has a history of collaboration with the Canadian government: in December 2017, Natural Resources Canada commissioned C-CORE to help develop the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility in the Northwest Territories.
“C-CORE has been expanding its capabilities in satellite monitoring to include the entire value chain from satellites to ground stations to earth observation data analytics, and this partnership with NordSpace will provide access to sovereign launch services to ensure Canadian safety and security in our space systems and earth observation pursuits” commented Paul Griffin, President & CEO of C-CORE. “We look forward to working with NordSpace in providing expanded Canadian ground station capacity and capability to national and international clients”.
By joining forces, NordSpace gains a proven, dependable, Canadian-controlled ground-station network to support its launch capability, advancing its vision for an end-to-end space-missions ecosystem in Canada. C-CORE gains access to sovereign launch services and an expanded network for its clients, strengthening its domestic and international offerings.
It’s a win-win partnership—one that could create new revenue streams for both companies while contributing to one of Canada’s pressing priorities: strengthening space and defence capabilities in the Arctic.
Read the full press release here.
