Lots to consider insurance-wise at Canada's first spaceport
Believe it or not, the Broadway premiere of Come From Away—a hit musical about flights that were diverted on 9/11 to the relatively unknown Gander, Newfoundland—wasn't the only recent development that has brought a small maritime town into the spotlight.
Canso is a tiny fishing village in rural Nova Scotia. It is virtually indistinguishable from other similar towns across Atlantic Canada. But in 2020, it will become the host site for this country's first-ever spaceport.
The honour is one that required Canso to beat out 13 other North American candidates. Canso stood out because of its favourable geographic location and its proximity to excellent infrastructure.
Development of the spaceport will be carried out by a company called Maritime Launch Services Ltd. Its purpose, at least early on, will be mainly to launch Ukraine-made rockets carrying commercial satellites into orbit.
With that comes some unique considerations from an insurance perspective. Aerospace insurance is obviously a very new and still-developing field. Yet there are those that have already gained some experience with it and bring much-needed perspective to new endeavours.
Chris Kunstadter, head of space underwriting at XL Catlin is one of them.
"There have been a few accidents at launch sites in the past five years, where either during preparations for launch or immediately after launch there has been damage to property in and around the launch space. It's obviously not a trivial risk," Kunstadter said.
He also notes that because of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, responsibility for any space accident falls to the country from which it was launched. This is significant, given that the parts and labour involved in a rocket's creation could be a product of several different countries' work.
Then there is the question of what kind of risks you are insuring against. Because space-bound vehicles begin travelling from a very specific area on the ground and then spend time in upper sections of the atmosphere where they become susceptible to incidents that could affect a much greater—and unpredictable—area across the globe, there is different coverage required for each step of the operation.
However, Maritime Launch CEO John Isella has already promised not to send satellites into space during lobster season. So compromising lobster season is at least one risk that won't require coverage.