T-minus 1 year until rocket launch site construction starts in Nova Scotia
Site selected by American aerospace experts from 14 options across North America
By Brett Ruskin, CBC News Posted: Mar 14, 2017 8:10 AM AT| Last Updated: Mar 14, 2017 8:42 AM AT
Nova Scotia is familiar with launching ships, but never quite like this.
The province will soon be the site of a rocket spaceport. On Tuesday, an American company announced plans to build the facility near Canso, N.S., and begin construction within one year.
Maritime Launch Services hopes to launch eight rockets annually by 2022, according to a news release from the company.
Canso-Hazel Hill was selected from 14 different sites across North America for the Ukrainian Cyclone 4M medium-class rocket. The company says it evaluated "access to polar/sun synchronous orbit, very low population density, proximity to multi-modal transportation, and interest from the community, province and government."
The company plans to launch Ukrainian-built rockets from the site, designed to deliver satellites into orbit, beginning in 2020.
The rockets will be able to carry up to 3,350 kilograms of payload and deliver satellites into orbit.
The company says it has received enthusiastic support from the community and multiple levels of government. It says it still has to work through the regulatory process but that it's optimistic it will break ground within one year.
Why Canso-Hazel Hill?
It wouldn't be the first time Canso-Hazel Hill has dabbled with the marvels of modern communication. In the 1880s, it became the landing point for an early subsea communications cable between North America and Europe, one that later transmitted news of the Titanic disaster and the end of the First World War.
It's also, apparently, well suited to launching rockets with satellites on board. Maritime Launch Services President Steve Matier told CBC News in January it has the right flight trajectory, a significant buffer from population centres and is close to infrastructure.
This isn't the first time Nova Scotia has been considered as a site for rocket launches.
In 2006, PlanetSpace — a partnership between an Ontario-based company and one in Chicago — wanted to set up a launch pad for NASA in Cape Breton.
In 2010, the Canadian Space Agency was also looking at Cape Breton as a possible site to blast small satellites into orbit using a rocket launch system.
There was even a Kickstarter campaign in 2014, started by a Halifax-based company called Open Space Orbital Incorporated, to raise money to develop a small prototype engine and market analysis with an aim to launch rockets from Nova Scotia.
Maritime Launch Services Ltd. is registered as a company in Nova Scotia, and is managed by a group of American aerospace experts.
The chief executive officer and president each have decades of experience in the space industry, including time spent working at NASA.
Funding for the project will come primarily from United Paradyne Corporation, a California-based company that specializes in creating and distributing rocket fuel.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/rocket-launch-site-confirmed-for-canso-nova-scotia-1.4023808
