The Daily Broadcast: MDA Space Targets $1-Billion Canadian Supplier Ecosystem

MDA Space Plans to Grow Canadian Suppliers Into $1-Billion Firms

MDA Space chief executive Mike Greenley says the company wants to help build four to six Canadian suppliers into $1-billion companies of their own. Speaking on the In the Money podcast with Amber Kanwar, Greenley framed the push as a shared project. “It’s on us to create four to six $1-billion companies that work for us on different contracts in Canada, to build that strong ecosystem,” he said.

The comments come as MDA Space grows quickly. Greenley told analysts on the company’s most recent earnings call that 2026 revenue is running near $2.5 billion on a combined basis with two pending acquisitions, with 2027 landing about 50 per cent higher. He used the $10-billion figure loosely, as an illustration of how big MDA Space could become “over the next several years.”

Greenley described a plan to hand smaller Canadian firms contracts far larger than they have handled before. As one example, he pointed to a Canadian supplier that had never landed a contract above $10 million suddenly winning upwards of $300 million, with MDA staying involved to help the company deliver.

NorthStar Leads ESA’s New Re-Entry Prediction Project

NorthStar Earth & Space’s Luxembourg office will lead a new European Space Agency project focused on predicting where uncontrolled re-entries will land. The project, called FALCON (Forecasting of Atmospheric Location and Chronology of Re-entry), will assess gaps in today’s re-entry forecasts and build a framework for probability-based estimates of timing and landing zone.

The work also covers Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), the band low enough that leftover atmosphere drags dead satellites and spent rocket stages back down. NorthStar’s partners are the same two academic groups from its earlier ESA-funded project: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain and Romania’s Institutul de Științe Spațiale. This is the second time in less than a year that ESA has put the three-way team in charge of atmospheric research feeding into re-entry safety.

Uncontrolled re-entries have drawn attention in recent years. Debris from a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage came down in Poland in February 2025, and Spain closed its airspace over the uncertain path of a falling rocket — an incident independent reporting traces to a Chinese Long March 5B stage’s re-entry in 2022.

“This project represents an important initiative in ongoing efforts to enhance the safety and predictability of re-entry events,” said Tim Flohrer, head of the Space Debris Office at ESA’s operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The release does not disclose the project’s value or timeline.

FLEX and Sentinel-3C Sealed Inside Vega-C Fairing

Sentinel-3C and FLEX ready for encapsulation | Source: ESA

At Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C have been enclosed within the protective fairing of their Vega-C rocket, a milestone that follows more than six weeks of preparations at the launch site. Liftoff is scheduled for 15 September at 03:21 CEST (14 September at 22:21 local time).

FLEX was first encapsulated within the lower part of the Vespa secondary payload adapter, the system that allows the rocket to carry multiple satellites on a single launch. Sentinel-3C was then mated to the upper part of Vespa. That positioning allows Sentinel-3C to be deployed first.

Citations

“MDA Space wants to build $1-billion Canadian suppliers” — https://spaceq.ca/mda-space-wants-1-billion-canadian-suppliers/
“NorthStar leads new ESA project on re-entry prediction” — https://spaceq.ca/northstar-leads-new-esa-project-on-re-entry-prediction/
“FLEX and Sentinel-3C sealed within Vega-C fairing” — https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FLEX_and_Sentinel-3C_sealed_within_Vega-C_fairing

GISAT-1A (EOS-05)

Provider: Indian Space Research Organization
Date: September 3, 2026
Time: 9:25 PM UTC
Vehicle: GSLV Mk II

GISAT-1A (GEO Imaging Satellite) is an Indian earth observing satellite operating from geostationary orbit to facilitate continuous observation of Indian sub-continent, quick monitoring of natural hazards and disaster.

EOS-05/GISAT-1A will replace EOS-03/GISAT-1 lost in launch failure in 2021.

Onward and Upward

Provider: Isar Aerospace
Date: September 4, 2026
Time: 8:00 PM UTC
Vehicle: Spectrum

Second test flight of the Isar Spectrum launch vehicle. This launch will carry 5 cubesats and 1 non-separable experiment as part of European Space Agency (ESA)’s “Boost!” program:

* CyBEEsat (TU Berlin)
* TriSat-S (University of Maribor)
* Platform 6 (EnduroSat)
* FramSat-1 (NTNU)
* SpaceTeamSat1 (TU Wien Space Team)
* Let It Go (Dcubed, non-separable experiment)