German company Isar Aerospace is expanding its operations abroad after signing an agreement with Canada’s Maritime Launch Services for the use of its spaceport in Nova Scotia.
The agreement allows Isar to design and operate the platform infrastructure based on the company’s needs to launch its Spectrum rocket. In return, Maritime Launch Services (MLS) will provide the pad and surrounding facilities for vehicle stage and payload integration, testing, and a mission control center for launch operations.
The deal gives Isar a 10-year, $150 million lease for the MLS launch site, with the option to extend it for up to an additional 10 years. Development of the facility is scheduled to begin later this year, and Isar is targeting 2028 for its first orbital launches from the new site.
“Canada is the next step in our roadmap to bring end-to-end launch capability to sovereign nations,” Alexandre Dalloneau, Isar’s vice president of launch and mission operations, said in a statement. company statement on Tuesday (July 7). “And we are proud to do it here in Canada and together with him.”
By 2029, Isar hopes to be able to support up to 40 launches from the new Canadian site. “By combining Isar Aerospace’s launch vehicle, Spectrum, with Nova Scotia’s licensed spaceport infrastructure, we are creating the conditions for reliable orbital launch services from Canada,” MLS President and CEO Stephen Matier said in the same statement.
MLS has positioned Spaceport Nova Scotia as a multi-user launch center, designed for expansion based on future customer needs. It is one of Canada’s first facilities designed to support orbital launches: Canadian company NordSpace is building a launch pad own with an equally flexible framework, but neither it nor Isar have yet carried out a successful orbital launch.
Isar has tried, however. Spectrum first released in March 2025, from Europe Andøya Spaceport in Norway, but the rocket began to fall shortly after passing the tower and fell again at Land in an explosion of fire. The company has since launched Spectrum several times for a second launch opportunity, but has run into technical or weather delays that have thwarted each attempt.
Still, that hasn’t slowed the company’s efforts. Dalloneau considers Isar’s success to be of international importance.
“While every nation needs data on spacealmost no nation has the end-to-end capability to access it independently. “This makes launch capability one of the most important bottlenecks in defense and intelligence today, and we are here to solve it,” he said.
