CANSO – Nearly two years after it was announced, Italy-based Leaf Space’s first Canadian ground station has been installed, activated and opened to commercial satellite traffic at Spaceport Nova Scotia near Canso.
The antenna, protective radome – a combination of the words ‘radar’ and ‘dome’ – and supporting electronics are now operating at the Maritime Launch Services (MLS) site, where the station will provide high-speed data links between satellites and operators on the ground.
“The completion of Leaf Space’s first Canadian ground station demonstrates Spaceport Nova Scotia’s ability to attract leading international space companies and support critical space infrastructure here in Canada,” Robert Feierbach, president of Maritime Launch USA, said in an MLS statement last week.
“We are proud to welcome this new capability to the spaceport and strengthen Canada’s growing sovereign space ecosystem.”
The development marks the completion of a project first announced Sept. 25, 2024, when Leaf Space signed a 10-year agreement with MLS to install and operate the station.
At the time, installation was expected to begin that fall, with the ground station fully operational by the first quarter of 2025. The federal government, through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, also provided MLS with a $120,000 repayable contribution to prepare the site for the specialized tracking and communications equipment.
Ground stations allow satellite operators to communicate with spacecraft in orbit, transmitting commands and receiving data without having to build and operate their own communications sites.
Leaf Space said when it announced the Canso project that the location would be particularly useful for polar and low-Earth-orbit missions, providing telemetry, tracking and command services as well as payload data downloads.
In a social media post last week, the company said its new Canadian site “strengthens our network while reinforcing a principle that has always guided us; satellite operators shouldn’t have to choose between global coverage and operational simplicity.”
Maritime Launch described the station as another part of the infrastructure needed to turn the Canso development into an operating spaceport.
“A spaceport is an entire ecosystem of roads, utilities, communications, tracking, facilities, operations and people working together to make launches possible,” the company said in a separate post Aug. 27.
MLS has spent much of the past decade developing the site and assembling financing, customers and regulatory support for commercial launch operations.
In March, the federal government signed a 10-year, $200-million agreement with the company under which the Department of National Defence will lease a dedicated launch pad at Spaceport Nova Scotia for military and federal operations.
The agreement provides MLS with $20 million annually and requires at least 90 per cent of the money to be spent in Canada.
The company has also carried out suborbital launch activity at the site while continuing construction of permanent infrastructure.
In May, MLS vice-president of corporate affairs Sarah McLean told The Journal that the company expected clients, suppliers and contractors to establish facilities on or near the spaceport as development continued.
“The opportunities in the area will extend well beyond Maritime Launch itself,” she said at the time. “Many of our clients, suppliers, and contractors are already looking to establish their own facilities on or near the Spaceport.”
Leaf Space is now one of them, giving MLS an operating commercial capability that does not depend on an orbital rocket launching from Nova Scotia.
Founded in 2014, the company operates a global network of shared ground stations used by satellite operators to communicate with spacecraft without maintaining their own dedicated antenna systems.
Leaf Space said in 2024 that its Canso station would become part of that worldwide network and give satellite operators another northern location from which to contact spacecraft passing overhead.
Construction at the spaceport has also continued. In late May, MLS CEO Stephen Matier said the first phase of civil work was nearing completion, with plans advancing for a utility hub, permanent entrance and security facility, a launch vehicle integration building and road access to four planned launch pads.
On June 10, MLS and T-Minus Engineering launched a Barracuda suborbital rocket from the site. The vehicle veered off its planned course after the initial stage of flight and a second launch scheduled for that morning was cancelled. MLS said the exercise helped test the infrastructure, procedures and expertise needed for future missions.
At the time, McLean said the company was aiming for another suborbital mission in the fall while continuing construction toward orbital launch operations beginning in late 2027 or 2028.
