MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, November 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — NordSpace Corp., Canada’s only vertically integrated space missions company, today announced that it has been awarded a $1 million contribution from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) under the Space Technology Development Program (STDP, AO10) to develop Zephyr-EP, the first commercial sovereign Canadian electric propulsion system for small satellites to manoeuvre with precision in space. The award comes on the heels of NordSpace’s successful inaugural launch of Terra Nova, the company’s first satellite built using its Athena bus, which carried systems designed to test and de-risk critical aspects of NordSpace’s integrated launch and spacecraft programs and continues to operate nominally in orbit. The CSA contribution anchors a broader NordSpace investment to establish Canadian design and manufacturing capability for electric propulsion in a class where no domestic commercial supplier exists, advancing a critical enabling technology for the sovereign Canadian LEO constellations NordSpace will build, launch, and operate, and for the company’s commitment of Canadian satellites launching on Canadian rockets from Canadian soil.
Electric propulsion is one of the most critical onboard systems for modern small satellites. Operators depend on it to maintain their orbits against atmospheric drag, perform collision avoidance in an increasingly crowded low Earth orbit environment, raise satellites from launch insertion orbits to their operational altitudes, transition between constellation layers, and safely deorbit at end of life in accordance with tightening international debris mitigation requirements. As LEO constellations have scaled from tens to tens of thousands of satellites, electric propulsion has become standard across the major commercial Earth observation, communications, and defence constellations in operation and in planning worldwide. Yet Canada has no commercial manufacturer of small satellite electric propulsion, forcing Canadian operators to depend on export-restricted foreign suppliers for one of the most strategically important components of a modern satellite. Zephyr-EP is designed to close that gap.
Zephyr-EP is a Hall effect thruster built around propellant flexibility between xenon and krypton, long operational life for extended missions, interplanetary transfers, constellation economics, and Canadian additive manufacturing of critical components. The thruster is clusterable, so the same core unit can be grouped to serve larger platforms where higher total thrust is required. Zephyr-EP is the lead product in a broader Zephyr in-space propulsion family that includes a Zephyr-EP50 variant planned for microsatellites, a Zephyr-EP500 variant planned for larger platforms, and a Zephyr-CH chemical thruster variant that will complement the electric line which has been in development since 2025.
Zephyr-EP is being developed at NordSpace’s Space Systems Lab (SSL) in Markham, Ontario, which houses in-house thermal vacuum, vibration, and ISO 5 clean room facilities and has the capacity to produce up to one small satellite per month. The electric propulsion technology aboard Terra Nova was a smaller NordSpace-built pathfinder article that proved the in-house capability to design and build electric propulsion, and Zephyr-EP takes that groundwork into a materially larger performance class with a Hall effect thruster architecture, xenon and krypton propellants, and the operational life required for constellation-scale missions. The Zephyr team draws directly on the propulsion talent and test discipline NordSpace has built across its launch systems program, including the Hadfield-150 orbital-class liquid rocket engine, reflecting the company’s broader position as a Canadian prime working across the full range of propulsion technologies, from liquid-fuel launch engines to in-space electric and chemical thrusters.
“To be a true spacefaring nation, Canada needs to design, build, and own the enabling technologies that let its satellites reach orbit, stay there, and come home safely,” said Rahul Goel, Founder and CEO of NordSpace. “There is no Canadian company today supplying electric propulsion for small satellites, and that gap sits directly in the path of every serious sovereign constellation this country wants to build, including NordSpace’s own. Zephyr-EP closes that gap. Combined with our Athena and Aquila spacecraft buses, our Tundra and Tempest launch vehicles, and the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, we are putting in place every ingredient of a real Canadian space economy, where Canadian satellites launch on Canadian rockets from Canadian soil. We are grateful to the Canadian Space Agency for backing NordSpace’s end-to-end space missions vision.”
A sustained Canadian presence in low Earth orbit, at the launch cadence NordSpace’s own constellations will require from its Tundra light-lift vehicle and the forthcoming Tempest medium-lift launcher at the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, depends on satellites that can hold their operational orbits, move between constellation shells and altitudes, and clear themselves responsibly at end of life. Zephyr-EP is how NordSpace delivers all three, and every NordSpace spacecraft bus produced going forward will come standard with a Zephyr-EP, beginning with Athena and extending to the Aquila bus now in development.
NordSpace is developing Zephyr-EP in collaboration with Dr. C. Malardier-Jugroot, Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada, whose research supports the propulsion physics underpinning the thruster’s design. Zephyr-EP is designed to serve dual-use commercial and defence satellite missions and to supply the broader Canadian small satellite ecosystem, including Earth observation, communications, and defence constellation operators who today have no domestic option for electric propulsion. The program also builds highly skilled Canadian aerospace employment in a segment where Canada has had no commercial capability.
About NordSpace
NordSpace Corp. is Canada’s only vertically integrated space missions company, fully Canadian-owned and dedicated to launching Canadian vehicles, from Canadian soil, carrying Canadian payloads. The company develops and operates launch vehicles, including the Taiga suborbital pathfinder, the Tundra light-lift vehicle, and the Tempest medium-lift launcher, powered by the patent-pending Hadfield-150 engine, Canada’s first orbital-class liquid rocket engine. NordSpace designs and builds its own spacecraft systems in-house at its Space Systems Lab in Markham, Ontario, and operates the Atlantic Spaceport Complex in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador, with propulsion test operations at Area 66 in Eastern Ontario, headquarters and manufacturing at Rocket Factory 1 in Markham, Ontario, and a policy and government relations office in Ottawa.
Team NordSpace
NordSpace Corp.
contact@nordspace.com
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