Maritime Launch Services


Maritime Launch Services is a Canadian space transport services company founded in 2016 and headquartered in Nova Scotia, Canada. MLS will rely on Ukrainian Cyclone-4M rockets by Yuzhnoye to launch polar and sun synchronous orbit from Canso, Nova Scotia. MLS is a joint venture of three U.S.-based firms.

Launch site

On March 14, 2017, MLS selected Canso, Nova Scotia as MLS's launch site. MLS has applied to lease 15 hectares of land outside the town from the provincial Department of Natural Resources, and construction is slated to begin in September of 2020. The $110 million rocket spaceport will be used to launch commercial satellites into space as early as 2020 with a goal for up to eight launches annually by 2022. The site will include a 10-15 metre-tall control centre and rocket assembly facility, with a launch pad positioned 2.4 kilometres away, linked by a custom rail system for rocket transportation. It will be the only operational spaceport in Canada, after the abandonment of the Churchill Rocket Research Range in the 1990s, and the first commercial spaceport for orbital launches in the country.
The proposed launch site is approximately 3.5 km south of Canso at, with the Vehicle Processing Facility located approximately 2 km south-west of Canso at.

Service

MLS hopes to launch eight rockets annually by 2022 with two southward launch options. Option 1 is a Sun-synchronous orbit launch between 600–800 km, for smaller satellites, with a payload up to 3350 kg for US$45 million. Option 2 is a Low Earth Orbit launch, below 600 km in altitude, that will allow a payload up to 5000 kg also for US$45 million.

Rockets

MLS relies on Ukrainian 2-stage Cyclone-4M rockets by Yuzhnoye Design Office. It uses a Zenit-derived first stage powered by four RD-874 Ukrainian-built Kerosene/LOX engines and upper stage stack developed for the original hypergolic Cyclone 4 rocket.