NordSpace Launches First Self-Funded ‘Terra Nova’ Satellite, Expands Tech Ambitions

NordSpace has launched Space Systems Lab and its first dual-use self-funded satellite Terra Nova.

Officially launching in 2026, Terra Nova marks a major expansion of NordSpace's technical capabilities and an essential step toward building Canada’s first fully sovereign, end-to-end space missions company.

This new division will design, build, and operate advanced spacecraft and mission architectures that complement and strengthen our launch, propulsion, and spaceport initiatives.

Terra Nova has been under development for the last year and it will host two proprietary payloads: Chronos, an edge-AI imaging system and Zephyr-EP, our electric propulsion thruster.

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Chronos enables Terra Nova to depart from the traditional model of remote sensing satellites that primarily collect raw imagery for later processing. Instead, it is designed to analyze data directly in orbit.

The satellite hosts an NVIDIA processor running artificial intelligence models trained using synthetic images generated through NordSpace’s proprietary simulation environment.