Skip to main content
Open this photo in gallery:

Steve Matier, CEO of Maritime Launch Services Inc., at the company’s office in Halifax on March 4.DARREN CALABRESE/The Globe and Mail

Steve Matier remembers that the toughest question he faced during a community meeting early on in his quest to establish Canada’s first commercial space facility near Canso, N.S., was a simple one: Are you real?

“It was disbelief, basically,” said Mr. Matier, who is president and CEO of Maritime Launch Services Inc. MAXQ-NE, based in Halifax.

To counter that disbelief, he said he talked about one of his favourite topics: the rare geometry that makes Canso one of the most appealing launch sites in North America.

“We can go from off the coast of Africa to a full sun-synchronous orbit,” said Mr. Matier, referring to the wide angle that extends southward from Canso across thousands of kilometres of open ocean. It encompasses launch trajectories “where everybody wants to put their satellites today.”

Nearly five years since relocating his family to Nova Scotia from the United States, Mr. Matier, 63, is several steps closer to realizing his dream. On Wednesday, Maritime Launch became a publicly traded company on Toronto’s NEO exchange. An environmental assessment of its plan has won approval from the province with accompanying conditions. This summer, the company expects to break ground at its launch site just outside Canso, with an initial demonstration launch planned for next year.

There is a growing demand for the off-world access Martime Launch aims to provide. Last year, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said that Amazon.com Inc., Boeing Co. and Canada’s Telesat Corp. were among several companies seeking approval for the launch of more than 37,000 additional satellites to facilitate broadband internet communications.

Where the sun rises and sets 16 times a day. What’s it’s like being aboard the International Space Station

Martime Launch’s first customer, Texas-based Nanoracks, is a payload deployment specialist that uses single launches to release dozens of small satellites for multiple clients – a mode of going to space that is becoming an industry norm.

Mr. Matier is no stranger to rockets in his backyard. Born in New York, he was raised in White Sands, N.M., home to a NASA test facility where engines from the Apollo lunar lander through to the Space Shuttle and beyond were put through their paces. It was also where he landed his first job after earning his engineering degree, and where he would be based for the next 16 years, working for a succession of industry contractors.

After leaving to set up his own consultancy in 2006, Mr. Matier’s next project was Spaceport America, located just west of White Sands, were he was involved in licensing, design, construction and operational startup. Last year, the facility served as backdrop to the widely-covered flight of Virgin Galactic CEO Sir Richard Branson and others aboard a rocket-powered space plane.

Well before then, Mr. Matier had moved on to working with an assortment of clients in the U.S. and internationally who were looking to develop their own launch sites. “I felt like I had a great skill set that fit with the commercial spaceport world,” he said.

It was during a search for potential launch sites in North America, from Mexico to Hudson Bay, that he first became aware of the Canso peninsula that juts into the Atlantic just south of Cape Breton Island. Because of its relative isolation and favourable sightlines, the site had so many safety advantages he was taken with the prospect of trying to get a launch facility approved there.

Mr. Matier added that when he first visited Canso, he found that people joked to him that “it isn’t the end of the Earth, but you can see it from here.” In other words, it was an ideal location for getting commercial satellites into orbit.

Drawing on the experience in New Mexico, where Spaceport America has been both costly and contentious for the state’s taxpayers, Mr. Matier said he realized the key to making a go of it in Nova Scotia was public support. That included seeking out First Nations and local residents and answering a lot of questions on everything from noise, safety and environmental concerns to any potential impacts on lobster fishing, the region’s main industry.

Open this photo in gallery:

A drawing of the proposed Launch Control Centre at Spaceport Nova Scotia. The building is intended to serve as the operations centre for the launch facility and also includes a visitor and education centre. Credit: Architecture49Handout

In Canso – a town that was economically crushed when its fish plant closed in 1989, and that has since grown weary of redevelopment schemes that go nowhere – Mr. Matier had a lot to prove. To that end, he said, being an engineer with a down-to-earth view of the space industry has been a plus.

“To outsiders its heady stuff... they get to see that the rocket leaves the pad,” he said. “What they don’t see is that it’s really much more about running a facility, safely and smoothly, and protecting the environment... all of that. It’s about electricians and plumbers and pipefitters – not people in white jackets with slide rules.”

Judy Cook, a resident and member of the liaison committee that serves as a link between the community and Maritime Launch, said Mr. Matier’s approach resonates.

“He’s very transparent, almost to a fault, he just lays it out on the table... and you can tell that he cares about our opinions,” she said. “It made me confident that they’re going to do everything possible to be proactive to try to alleviate the concerns that people have.”

Not everyone agrees, she said. Some remain opposed to the facility. But the prospect of a new employer in the community with spinoff benefits, including the draw of tourists coming to watch launches as often as eight times a year, has many hoping Mr. Matier can succeed.

An additional hurdle is that the rocket the company plans to use as its workhorse launcher is built in Ukraine. So far, the facility has not been affected by Russia’s invasion, and Maritime Launch says it stands by its partners.

Back in Canada, Brian Gallant, the former premier of New Brunswick and CEO of the industry association Space Canada, said Maritime Launch is poised to fill a long-standing gap in the country’s space sector by providing domestic launch capability.

“On top of the growth of demand, given that space is a strategic sector that protects our security and sovereignty, there is a need for Canada and its allies to enhance launch capabilities,” he said.

Mr. Matier said that, at the end of the day, it’s the goodwill the company has built with the residents of Canso that remains at the foundation of his strategy.

“They’ve said they’re willing to shoulder the risk as long as they see the benefits,” he said. “My commitment to them is to make sure they see those benefits.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the environmental assessment.

Your time is valuable. Have the Top Business Headlines newsletter conveniently delivered to your inbox in the morning or evening. Sign up today.

Report an editorial error

Report a technical issue

Editorial code of conduct

Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 4:15pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
MAXQ-NE
Maritime Launch Services Inc.
-7.41%0.125

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe