On May 11, 2026, Maritime Launch Services purchased additional land at Dover Road, Portage Cove for $358,698.
A C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the 436th Airlift Wing, Dover Air Force Base, landed at Yokota Air Base, Japan on 2023-05-10 while assisting Space Systems Command in delivering a second payload for QZSS.
The Start Me Up manifest included DOVER, developed by RHEA Group and built by Open Cosmos as a pathfinder smallsat for resilient global navigation systems co-funded through ESA’s NAVISP.
Open Cosmos completed manufacturing and testing of the DOVER-Pathfinder satellite within four months from contract signature to delivery at the launch site.
Open Cosmos delivered the RHEA DOVER-Pathfinder mission from contract signature to launch site delivery in less than one year.
DOVER was developed by RHEA Group in the U.K. as the company’s first satellite in its 30-year history and is co-funded through ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) and built by Open Cosmos of the United Kingdom.
The Spaceport Nova Scotia launch facility will be built on crown land under a 20-year lease of approximately 335 acres near the rural communities of Canso, Little Dover, and Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia.
Open Cosmos and RHEA Group selected Virgin Orbit’s UK business to launch the DOVER Pathfinder satellite to low Earth orbit from Spaceport Cornwall later 2022.
The DOVER Pathfinder’s payload was designed by RHEA Group in the UK and the satellite was built by UK-based Open Cosmos.
RHEA Group is working with Open Cosmos to design, build, and operate the DOVER Pathfinder mission.