Brampton-based MDA Space is investing $10 million in Maritime Launch Services, one of the Canadian companies building a spaceport on the East Coast.
The investment will be used for research and development initiatives relating to the development of Maritime Launch’s under-construction Spaceport Nova Scotia, the company said in a statement. The deal also marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between the two Canadian space companies, with MDA Space expecting to become an operational partner of the spaceport and support its development and future operations.
“Establishing sovereign launch capacity in Canada that will respond to the global demand for alternate launch capabilities on Canada’s Atlantic coast is important.”
“By combining MDA Space’s world-class technical heritage with our operational focus at Spaceport Nova Scotia, we are creating the conditions our launch vehicle clients need: reliability, responsiveness, and integration across the full mission campaign,” Maritime Launch president and CEO Stephen Matier said in a statement.
Maritime Launch is building Spaceport Nova Scotia near Canso, NS, roughly 300 km east of Halifax. It will provide satellite launch services for both Canadian and global clients.
MDA purchased its equity stake in Maritime Launch for $0.223 per share, a roughly 50-percent premium on Maritime Launch’s pre-announcement closing price of $0.15 per share on the Cboe Canada stock exchange. The deal affords MDA Space certain rights, including the right to nominate a member of Maritime Launch’s board and pro-rata participatory rights in future financings of the spaceport.
“In a rapidly changing space industry, establishing sovereign launch capacity in Canada that will respond to the global demand for alternate launch capabilities on Canada’s Atlantic coast is important,” MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley said in a statement. “This is an example of strategically located critical infrastructure that is needed.”
Maritime Launch has claimed Spaceport Nova Scotia will be the first commercial orbital launch complex in Canada. The project has faced delays, however, and the MDA deal is just one example of the company courting capital for the project. Last week, it secured a $10-million senior credit facility from Export Development Canada (EDC). It received an approximately $1-million equity investment from Longueuil, Que.-based rocket company Reaction Dynamics in August.
RELATED: Maritime Launch gets $10-million loan from EDC to build Nova Scotia spaceport
Founded in 2016, Maritime Launch is in a commercial space race on the Atlantic Canadian coast with Markham, ON-based NordSpace, which broke ground in August on the site that it said will facilitate Canada’s first commercial space launch in Newfoundland. The Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) is located just outside of the small town of St. Lawrence, NL, which is on the province’s southeastern coast and approximately 350 km away from St. John’s.
MDA Space, a spacetech contractor and the company behind the Canadarm3, has faced some business challenges of its own this year. In September, Elon Musk-owned SpaceX swooped in to deny MDA’s $1.8 billion CAD contract with US telecom EchoStar, sending MDA’s Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) shares into a plunge. The threat of SpaceX made MDA’s share price drop again last week after Bloomberg reported that Globalstar, a company MDA signed a $1.1 billion deal with in February, held early talks with Musk’s company on a potential sale.
MDA was trading at $27.40 per share on the TSX as of market close on Monday, a significant drop from its 52-week high of $48.31 per share, which it achieved before it lost the EchoStar deal.
Feature image courtesy NASA via Unsplash.