CANSO — “Awe-inspiring,” whispered Steven Matier. The 65-year-old former NASA engineer, who has seen countless rocket launches over his long career, stood on the scrubby edge of his Spaceport Nova Scotia launch pad last week and watched the Barracuda hypersonic vehicle punch into the clear blue sky above Canso. “It’s so cool.”
A few hours later, gripping the steering wheel of his car as he drove away from the site – not much more than a clearing in the coastal scrubland of eastern Guysborough County – his voice was still unsteady from adrenaline and the effects of countless cups of coffee. But he did his best to sound like the CEO of what now stands to become Canada’s first commercial rocket launch facility: cool, measured, unflappable.
“This demonstration was a complete mission success,” he said. “Every mission strengthens our capabilities and drives continuous improvement and learning.”
Still, he was grinning. And why not?
For Matier and his team at Maritime Launch Services (MLS), the Nov. 20 suborbital launch at precisely 11:54 a.m. marked not just another test flight – only the second in two years for the company – but a long-delayed, much-fought-for milestone for him, the community and the broader effort to build a homegrown space-launch capability in Canada.
A launch few could see
For many in the area, that milestone arrived with more mystery than spectacle. The launch was not open to the public. Media were kept outside the security perimeter. Photos and video were supplied only after the fact by MLS and its partners at T-Minus Engineering, the Dutch firm that built and operated the rocket.
While MLS applied for its formal Transport Canada notice that alerts pilots to temporary airspace restrictions, including rocket launches, in accordance with federal requirements (the notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, was issued Nov. 10), the company deliberately did not send out a media advisory or broad public announcement ahead of the demonstration.
That combination – an official NOTAM but no public-facing notice – fuelled some confusion on social media about when the launch would occur.
“The focus for this demonstration was on regulatory requirements and safe launch operations,” said Sarah McLean, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, emphasizing that the NOTAM functions as an official airspace notification issued by Transport Canada, not a community advisory, “It was not designed as a public or media-facing event.”
Part of that, Matier said, was simple safety. Under Transport Canada’s launch-demonstration framework, the airspace had to be cleared, exclusion zones established, and ignition controlled under specific protocols. Weather conditions had to line up. Marine traffic had to be managed.
And that last one turned out to be an issue.
Harold Roberts, president of the Canso Area Development Association and a member of MLS’s Community Liaison Committee, had headed up the hill to the Star of the Sea cemetery before 7 a.m., when the launch was originally scheduled, hoping for a good view. “At 10 after nine, they still hadn’t launched,” he said. “They [told me they] were experiencing a delay because of marine traffic… boats or ships off the coast… They had to wait for those to clear out.”
He wasn’t alone. Even without a public viewing invitation, word had gotten out. “There was probably, I would say, 30 or 40 people there,” he said. “A nice venue… you can actually look down towards the launch site. But I had to leave.”
Still, he noted, while he was there, the tone was upbeat. “A lot of it was curiosity and excitement… There were some little kids there as well.”
A decade of delay and frustration
The fact that the launch happened at all felt, in many ways, miraculous.
When MLS arrived in Guysborough County in 2016 with the vision of building Canada’s first commercial spaceport, the idea was audacious: a facility on the edge of the continent, isolated, low population, with access to open Atlantic airspace for polar launches. But the road from then to now has been punishing.
The company’s original plan – to launch Ukrainian-built Cyclone rockets – was pulverized by the war in Ukraine. Years of environmental reviews required dozens of species-at-risk and migratory-bird studies. Federal and provincial regulators struggled to determine how to oversee an industry Canada had never hosted. Financing was uncertain. Public skepticism flared, and some residents dug in as vocal opponents.
MLS pivoted. Instead of flying its own rockets, it evolved into an “airport-model” launch-services provider, proposing integration hangars, tracking stations and regulatory coordination to external launch companies. In 2023, it supported a suborbital demonstration led by York University. But orbital ambitions remained clouded by timelines and funding.
Through 2023 and early 2024, the company’s financial filings reflected losses and pre-revenue risk. Investors were faithful but expectant. Local questions persisted. Progress was slow.
And then, suddenly, it wasn’t.
A sudden rush of good news
In the span of just a few weeks this fall, the long-stalled project was jolted forward by a burst of institutional support.
On Oct. 24, Export Development Canada announced a $10-million senior credit facility to accelerate infrastructure build-out at the Canso site. EDC framed Spaceport Nova Scotia as strategic national infrastructure – vital for telecommunications, defence and future satellite deployment.
Then, less than two weeks later, on Nov. 3, MDA Space Ltd. – one of Canada’s largest and most influential aerospace companies – invested $10 million in equity, gaining a board nomination and the right to participate in future financings. MDA also committed to an operational role at the site.
The very next day, the federal government tabled a budget that included $182.6 million to support Canada’s emerging sovereign launch capability.
The timing, McLean said, was not coordinated – but undeniably powerful. “When industry efforts and government priorities point in the same direction, it reinforces confidence,” she said.
She added that the MDA investment is supporting site infrastructure, R&D tied to build-out and readiness and paying off the company’s outstanding debt. All were steps, she said, toward MLS’s plan for Canada’s first orbital launch from the site in 2026 or 2027.
For the first time in years, everything appeared to be moving at once.
Who made it happen
Despite the national attention, the Nov. 20 suborbital demonstration was executed by a surprisingly small and tightly coordinated team. According to Matier, the on-site operation included a launch director overseeing the entire mission, supported by a flight safety specialist and a range control officer responsible for countdown, communications and range clearance. Three officials from Transport Canada’s Flight Standards division were also present, providing regulatory oversight under the federal launch-demonstration framework.
The technical heart of the mission came from the six-member T-Minus Engineering team, the Dutch specialists responsible for preparing, integrating and flying the Barracuda vehicle.
Alongside them was STORIES of Space president Beth Mund, who served as payload specialist for the mission and had personally loaded a micro-SD card into the rocket’s nose cone earlier in the week. The U.S.-based nonprofit partnered with MLS and T-Minus on a public-engagement campaign that invited young Canadians – roughly 100 from Nova Scotia – to contribute written stories and student-designed mission patches to be sent aloft.
Rounding out the operation were several local contractors: a site access control officer, four members of Klooscap Security, a local drone operator and a local videographer capturing material for MLS’s post-launch release. The Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association supported communications with nearby fishermen during the exclusion-zone period, and AJ’s kept the team supplied with pizza.
‘That noise went right through us’
One of those who actually saw the launch from a safe 700 metres away was Mund, a former NASA communications officer. As the countdown hit zero, she said the experience was stunning. “It went fast,” she said. “It was really loud. That noise was strong.”
Unlike large NASA launches, where the sound crosses a distance of water, she said the delay between ignition and impact was minimal. “You saw the ignition, and you heard it almost right away. It went right through us.”
She added: “This demonstration proves that this can be done from this spaceport in beautiful Canso.”
On that point, Municipality of the District of Guysborough councillor for Canso – and MLS CLC member – Fin Armsworthy, couldn’t agree more. He didn’t witness the launch; still he said the project will be good for the community in several ways – from tourism to local spinoffs to direct business activity – and that, nationally, it helps put Canada on the map as the home of the country’s first commercial spaceport.
At the same time, he acknowledged that some members of the community have vocally opposed the spaceport, questioning everything from its effect on local property values, the fishery, and the environment. (The Journal reached out to one for comment about the launch, but was told a response would not be forthcoming before press time)
“There have been some naysayers putting up signs and things like that,” Armsworthy said. “But there wasn’t negativity [around the launch]. There was no protest whatsoever.”
For his part, Roberts, who describes himself as pragmatic, believes overall support is strong. “If you took a poll today,” he said, “I think you’d find at least 90 per cent or more of the people would agree that they see nothing wrong with having a spaceport.”
He attributes some of that support to jobs, economic development and a desire to keep younger generations in the area. “For our younger people, we need jobs. And of course, that’s not at the expense of the detriment of the community. But if they’re good, paying, technical and other advanced jobs… why not?”
The mission plan
For Matier, the launch was both a validation and a beginning. MLS is now moving into construction and integration phases with MDA, while continuing coordination with Transport Canada and NAV CANADA, and preparing for its planned first orbital launch in 2026 or 2027.
But for a few unadulterated moments of sheer “wow” last week, none of that was on Matier’s mind. He had just watched a rocket lift off from a piece of ground he first walked a decade ago, when the idea of a Canadian spaceport on the shores of Chedabucto Bay felt about as remote as the surface of the moon.
Now, the exhaust marks were on the pad. And the sky over Canso had held a rocket.
No wonder he was grinning.
