Maritime Launch Services

Maritime Launch Services, founded in 2016 and headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is Canada's commercial launch services company developing Spaceport Nova Scotia near Canso on Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast — positioning Canada's first commercial spaceport at 45°N latitude with Atlantic Ocean downrange for access to polar, sun-synchronous, and east-coast launch trajectories serving growing Canadian and international small satellite constellation demand.

Maritime Launch's spaceport at Canso provides geographical access to orbit that Canada's existing public launch capability (sounding rockets only) cannot offer: polar and sun-synchronous orbits from a Canadian-soil launch site using Atlantic downrange clearance over water without overflight of populated coastal areas. The 45°N latitude efficiently accesses inclinations from polar (90°) to mid-inclination (~45°) used by communications and remote sensing constellations, with summer launch windows aligned with daylight operations and winter windows providing SSO launch timing.

The company partnered with Reaction Dynamics (Montreal-based hybrid rocket propulsion startup) for the Aurora-8 orbital launch vehicle — a small-lift rocket using Reaction Dynamics' hybrid propulsion technology targeting approximately 300-500 kg to LEO rideshare missions. In November 2025, Maritime Launch completed its first Barracuda suborbital test launch, demonstrating the spaceport's operational launch infrastructure and range safety procedures ahead of orbital vehicle development completion.

Maritime Launch serves Canada's growing commercial space sector: companies like Telesat (LEO constellation), Satellite Vu, and defense customers seeking Canadian sovereign launch access that does not require export control approval from US or European launch providers. The company competes with PSCA (Kodiak Island, Alaska), Andøya Space (Norway), and SaxaVord (UK) for sub-2,000 km inclination LEO commercial launch contracts.