Proposed spaceport launches ecological questions
Project’s backers told they need to address concerns
HALIFAX — Government experts have raised environmental concerns over a proposal to open Canada’s only commercial spaceport near the small community of Canso, N.S.
Documents released by the province detail numerous questions about the proposal commissioned by the Canso Spaceport Facility, a proposed 20-hectare site aimed at attracting firms that want to put satellites into orbit.
The project’s backer, Maritime Launch Services, was recently informed by Nova Scotia’s environment minister it must address a number of concerns before it can proceed with the project.
In the documents provided Wednesday, Neil Morehouse, a manager in the province’s Environment Department, says there is little in the proposal addressing how an explosion, crash or fuel leak would affect the nearby Canso Coastal Barrens Wilderness Area. Morehouse says a spill would “destroy the impacted ecosystems with no chance of recovery within the next several hundred years.”
According to the Maritime Launch Services proposal, the rockets would use nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine, or UDH, for the second portion of their launch into the atmosphere.
A letter from the Defence Department says the military “does not have sufficient knowledge” to assess the effects of an accidental discharge of the UDH on the land or surface water, but “suggests an assessment should be completed.”