The United States’ (US) NASA is bringing the 2025 Space Apps Challenge to Canada on Oct. 4 and 5, and will hold the Toronto event at Bombardier Centre for Aerospace and Aviation at Centennial College’s Downsview Campus.
As in recent years, the annual hackathon tasks both in-person and virtual participants with solving Earth- and space-related problems using NASA’s open datasets. The space agency aims to foster collaborations between creatives, developers, scientists, and students to allow them to bolster their portfolios and professional networks.
NASA says the Toronto event is the largest Space Apps Challenge in Canada.
NASA stresses that entrants don’t need coding experience, and can get expert mentorship in the process.
NASA launched the challenge in 2012 and included Canada from its early days. The challenge is now held across 163 countries and territories.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is among 15 space agencies involved. It began participating in 2018 and offers its own challenges to Canadian participants in cities including Montréal, Ottawa, and Vancouver.
Entrants submit their projects for judging in a Global Winners competition that reflects the “most innovative” work, according to NASA. In 2024, Canadian teams won in two out of 12 categories. Waterloo, Ont.-based WMPGang won in the “Best Use of Science” category for a web app to find near-Earth objects, while Saskatoon’s Asteroid Destroyer team mapped exoplanets (planets beyond the solar system) in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
NASA says the Toronto event is the largest Space Apps Challenge in Canada. It attracted over 300 contributors in 2024, according to the agency. By contrast, the 2012 Challenge included 2,004 people worldwide. Registrations began climbing sharply in 2020, when NASA added a one-year COVID-19 hackathon. The hybrid attendance model has also helped registrations grow sharply since 2022. There were 93,520 registrations worldwide in 2024.
RELATED: BetaKit Most Ambitious: The Moon Shots
The Space Apps Challenge comes at crucial moments for both NASA and the Canadian space industry. US President Donald Trump’s administration has cut 4,000 NASA jobs and has proposed cutting funding for science programs by half as it focuses on its Artemis moon program. The White House has also fought against climate change research that might support the challenge, such as two climate monitoring missions that track carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and measure plant health.
In Canada, spaceflight is set to expand in the near future. NordSpace is poised to launch what it claims is Canada’s first commercial rocket as soon as Aug. 27, while Maritime Launch Services and Reaction Dynamics are readying an orbital vehicle for a planned 2028 debut. The CSA is also poised to make history, as astronaut Jeremy Hansen could become the first Canadian to circle the moon if NASA’s Artemis II mission launches as planned in April 2026.
Feature image courtesy Centennial College and NASA.