Galaxia Mission Systems has been awarded a $2.5 million contract by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) to design, build, launch, and operate the Canadian Tactical Operations Satellite (CTOS).
The company said that “the 33-month CTOS mission will be designed and manufactured in-house at Galaxia’s facilities in Nova Scotia. The CTOS spacecraft will then be operated using Galaxia’s extended orbital gateways across Canada and around the world.”
Based in Atlantic Canada, Galaxia builds intelligent, AI-powered satellites and provides turnkey nanosatellite manufacturing. The company secured the contract through a competitive proposal process under the Department of National Defence’s DRDC IDEaS program.
“The Canadian Tactical Operations Satellite (CTOS) is a defence-focused mission awarded to Galaxia by the Department of National Defence,” said Arad Gharagozli, Galaxia’s Founder and CEO. “It serves as a critical building block in strengthening Canada’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space architecture, aimed at enabling future systems to move information more efficiently across space networks, especially in remote and hard-to-reach regions like the Arctic. CTOS will test novel concepts for versatile tactical communication satellites, including the use of edge computing to process data packets in orbit, allowing traffic to be routed faster and with greater resilience between nodes and other space-based assets.
According to Gharagozli, Galaxia is building CTOS using its Halifax-Class nanosatellite bus. It is an 8U platform weighing about 16 kilograms and equipped with advanced sensors and communications payloads. “The mission is being delivered under Galaxia’s MissionOne turnkey service, which takes a client’s concept and carries it through every phase: spacecraft design, manufacturing, integration, launch, operations, and eventual decommissioning,” he told SpaceQ. “We are currently targeting a launch in 2027-28, and the launch provider has not yet been selected. Work on the project has already begun, our team is currently in the concept design phase.”
Galaxia’s MissionOne service delivers turnkey satellite missions from concept to launch and operations. “Our Virtual Satellite as a Service (VSaS) platform, powered by our proprietary Software Defined Satellite (SDS) technology, lets customers deploy software directly to orbit on shared satellites, much like cloud computing for space,” said Gharagozli. “We launched our demonstration of VSaS enabled spacecraft, Mobius 1, earlier this year, with the first batch of commercial SDS satellites planned to launch in the next two years.”
During the CTOS satellite’s year in orbit, Galaxia said it plans to:
- Test and benchmark LEO data relay pipelines as a basis for secure, resilient communications.
- Test and demonstrate edge-computing capabilities to provide faster, in-orbit data processing and decision-making.
- Develop a basis for scalable hybrid networks that will enhance Canada’s competitiveness in the global space sector.
- Show how low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity via LEO could benefit remote Arctic communities and the defence of this region.
“We’re proud to be part of building the future of Canadian space capabilities,” Gharagozli concluded. “CTOS marks a major milestone for Galaxia as we expand our MissionOne program, which has seen rapid growth as demand for Canadian-built nanosatellites continues to rise. As one of Canada’s fastest-growing nanosatellite manufacturers, we see this mission as a springboard to further strengthen Canada’s presence in space and contribute to the country’s export profile through upcoming missions already in our pipeline.”