In a recent statement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the federal government is investing $200 million towards Canada’s first launch pad in Nova Scotia. The site is owned by Maritime Launch Services, a Canadian commercial space company founded in 2016 and headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This investment reflects the federal government’s recently released Defense Industrial Strategy, issued by the Defense Industrial Agency (DIA). This document establishes aerospace and aerospace platforms as one of Canada’s “key sovereign capabilities.”

The announcement was issued by Defense Minister David McGuinty on Monday, March 16th, during a press conference at the CSA David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa. As he outlined, the $200 million will be put toward a 10-year lease on the launch pad, located near Canso, N.S., which is expected to finish construction by 2028. Once operational, the facility will be Canada’s first commercial spaceport dedicated to launching and servicing defense, science, and commercial satellites, and fostering technological innovation.

“About 20 per cent of the Canadian economy relies on satellites — our banking systems, our cellphone systems, our transactions.” McGuinty was quoted as saying in a CBC News story. “So, we want to be able to give [ourselves] more sovereignty and security on that front.”

This is increasingly important given the growing number of commercial space companies and the dramatic increase in satellites being sent into orbit. At the same time, more nations are building launch sites to enable domestic launch capability. The issue of sovereignty is crucial amid ongoing supply chain issues and tensions between the current U.S. administration and its allies, which could potentially endanger the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) ability to launch its satellites aboard U.S. rockets. Sovereign launch capacity will also help prevent Canadian satellites from spending years waiting in a launch queue.

*Nordspace’s Tundra rocket at the company launch facility in Newfoundland. Credit: Nordspace*

McGuinty hinted at this in his speech, saying Ottawa does not want to be entirely dependent on third parties to launch rockets (though he didn’t name names). McGuinty also announced that Canada plans to become a full member of the NATO Starlift initiative, an Overarching Space Policy entered into by NATO allies to create a space-launch network to safeguard satellite communications against potential threats (like Russia and China).

Stephen Matier, CEO of Maritime Launch Services, said that a sovereign launch capability is a big step for Canada, and the federal contract sends a strong signal to the market about the spaceport’s development. “For years, we’ve been taking our satellites from MDA Space or Kepler or those here in Canada and writing big cheques to SpaceX to launch them from Florida or from California,” he said. “SpaceX is selling extra space on their rockets … but you don’t get to go where you want to go or when you want to go.”

Sarah Gallagher, a former CSA adviser and now the director of Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, said there are not many countries worldwide with sovereign launch capabilities:

We have our own space assets in outer space, and so being able to access them immediately with resources that we have control over is quite important. The other thing is that having a launch site actually in Nova Scotia is really advantageous. The latitude of Nova Scotia can give you access to different kinds of orbits, which is useful depending on what you’re trying to do. Obviously, we care a lot about the North, and so having a launch site that’s at northern latitudes can be used for that.

In related news, the Canadian aerospace company NordSpace (based in Markham, Ontario) was selected as a winner of the “Launch the North: Accelerating Canada’s Sovereign Access to Space” challenge. This incentive competition aims to accelerate the advancement of Canadian-designed launch vehicles and supporting technologies, and enable domestic launch capability.

*Aerial View of NordSpace’s Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) Space Launch Complex (SLC) 02 Under Construction, Newfoundland and Labrador. Credit: Nordspace*

The challenge is administered by the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) through the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program (launched in February). This program provides funding and expertise to advance the research and development of defense-related technologies. The competition will award a total prize pool of up to $105 million over three years, divided into three phases.

Per the competition, NordSpace has been awarded a $8.33 million Phase 1 grant to fund the development of its Tundra orbital launch vehicle, an end-to-end orbital launch system that aims to be Canada’s first domestically designed, built, and operated rocket. This two-stage rocket relies on a modular turbopump-fed liquid bipropellant propulsion system, known as the “Hadfield engine,” which powers both the multi-engine first-stage cluster and the single-engine vacuum-optimized second stage, thereby reducing development and risk.

The Tundra rocket is reportedly capable of delivering over 500 kg (1,100 lbs) to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and over 350 kg (770 lbs) to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO). The upgraded version, the Tundra+ configuration, will reportedly be able to deliver 1,100 kg (2,425 lbs) to LEO and 850 kg (1875 lbs) to SSO. The Hadfield’s modular engine architecture also offers the potential for direct scaling that could lead to NordSpace’s planned Titan medium-lift vehicle, targeting a payload capacity of over 5,000 kg (11,000 lbs) to LEO. As NordSpace CEO & Founder Rahul Goel said in a company statement:

At NordSpace, we have been working for years to develop scalable end-to-end space launch capabilities for Canada, and today our nation has sent an unequivocal signal that Canada too will become a spacefaring nation capable of assured access to space. For NordSpace, sovereign launch is certainly about securing our national interests, building a stronger economy, and supporting our allies.

However, it is also about healthier food on our plates, clearer communication with loved ones, faster responses to environmental challenges, reshoring advanced manufacturing, and revivifying Canadian dynamism.

The Defense Industrial Strategy and Launch the North represent the most significant investment in Canadian space launch capability in the nation’s history. As Canada’s reliance on space-based communications, navigation, intelligence, surveillance, and early warning systems deepens, the absence of a sovereign launch capability is a national security issue. These programs and the investments they entail are seen as a way to secure Canada’s strategic autonomy in space, promote innovation, and establish Canada as a leader in commercial and defense-oriented space services.

Further Reading: CBC, Nordspace

California is suing the Trump administration over its decision to roll back the endangerment finding, the U.S. government’s longstanding scientific conclusion that planet-heating pollution seriously threatens Americans, state officials announced Thursday.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Air Resources Board are co-leading a coalition of 25 attorneys general, the governor of Pennsylvania, and 10 cities and counties in a petition challenging the Environmental Protection Agency, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The 2009 endangerment finding was a long-awaited, foundational piece of the nation’s effort to address climate change, and it underpinned much of U.S. climate policy — including the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin touted the February repeal as “the single largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States of America.”

The coalition has argued that rescinding the endangerment finding is a violation of settled law, including clear Supreme Court precedent, as well as broad scientific consensus over the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on human health and welfare. Its rollback will disrupt the regulatory landscape and result in significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions, which drive climate change, they said.

The lawsuit will ask the court to vacate the EPA’s repeal and restore greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles. A formal complaint is pending the judge’s acceptance of the petition.

“With the unlawful rescission of the Endangerment Finding, President Trump and his EPA have abandoned their most important mission: protecting the health and welfare of the American people,” Bonta said in a statement. “The science doesn’t lie: Climate change and [greenhouse gas] emissions are harming public health and causing devastating and ever-worsening disasters. Our communities have felt the impact of destructive wildfires, watched families run from burning homes, inhaling toxic fumes, and we’ve seen entire communities wash away in severe floods. The President can’t keep his head in the sand — climate change is real and decades of settled science warned us this was coming.”

Much of the EPA’s argument for repealing the endangerment finding hinged on whether greenhouse gases qualify as “air pollutants” under the Clean Air Act, making them subject to federal regulations. A landmark 2007 Supreme Court case, Massachusetts vs. EPA, determined that they are.

In its decision, the agency said it “carefully considered and reevaluated the legal foundation” for the finding and concluded that the Clean Air Act does not provide statutory authority for the agency to prescribe motor vehicle and emissions standards, and therefore has no legal basis for the endangerment finding or its resulting regulations.

In a statement Thursday, EPA officials reaffirmed that conclusion and said the lawsuit is not about the legality or the merits of their argument, but rather political motivation.

“EPA is bound by the laws established by Congress, including under the [Clean Air Act],” the agency said. “Congress never intended to give EPA authority to impose [greenhouse gas] regulations for cars and trucks.”

The coalition alleges that the repeal of the endangerment finding violates the Clean Air Act as well as the Administrative Procedure Act by resting on the “flawed assertion” that it lacks legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and “ignores overwhelming and longstanding scientific evidence” about the role of greenhouse gas emissions on human health and welfare.

It also argues that the elimination of existing and future greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles violates EPA’s legal obligations and fundamental responsibility to protect the public from environmental harm.

EPA’s repeal will not only disrupt 15 years of regulatory progress, but will also threaten American investment in future technologies and U.S. leadership in the transportation sector and efforts to address climate change, the coalition said.

“This is what corruption looks like. Donald Trump is breaking the laws that protect Americans from climate pollution — all to enrich his Big Oil and his wealthy polluting allies,” Newsom said in a statement. “Workers, families, and communities would pay the price, left choking on dirty air. No one is above the law in this country. Not even the president.”

The EPA also cast doubt on the climate science behind the endangerment finding, despite the fact that independent researchers around the world have long concluded that greenhouse gases released by the burning of gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels are warming the planet and contributing to worsening climate impacts. Understanding of how carbon dioxide warms the atmosphere goes back more than a century.

Among its justifications, the agency’s ruling says that reducing greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing vehicles in the U.S. would have only “de minimis impacts” on global temperature and sea level rise. But many experts say reducing those emissions is critical for curbing climate change, as the transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. In California, it accounts for about half of the state’s emissions.

EPA’s proposal to repeal the endangerment finding received more than half a million public comments, including from environmentalists, scientists, civil rights groups, public health organizations and former EPA officials opposed to the plan. Support for the plan generally came from industry and regulatory reform groups who said the vehicle standards that rest on the endangerment finding are costly and unduly burdensome.

Bonta co-leads the lawsuit alongside the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. They are joined by attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

The coalition also includes Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; the cities of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Harris County, Texas.

This marks California’s 63rd lawsuit against the Trump administration since the president returned to office last year.