NorthStar Earth and Space, a Canadian space situational awareness (SSA) provider, has announced a plan to become a publicly traded company by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Viking Acquisition Corp. I. The merger, announced April 17, is intended to raise funds to expand NorthStar's space-based sensor network. Viking, which is sponsored by New York-based KingsRock Advisors and led by CEO N. Håkan Wohlin, had about $230 million in trust as of December 31 after listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
How much of that cash NorthStar actually gets depends on shareholder redemptions before the merger vote, but the deal is structured to guarantee at least $30 million. The transaction also includes a $30 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) add-on, anchored by U.S. private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group, which also led NorthStar's Series C funding round in 2023. NorthStar, which has raised about $100 million to date from backers including the governments of Quebec and Luxembourg, will get a pre-money valuation of $300 million from the deal, slated to close before the end of September.
Founder and CEO Stewart Bain said becoming a public company provides "unprecedented access to capital" to scale operations and keep pace with the challenges of increased launch frequency. The company's journey to this point, however, has been anything but a smooth orbital insertion. NorthStar initially picked Thales Alenia Space in 2020 to build its first satellites, then pivoted two years later to a deal with Spire for smaller cubesats, planning a 2023 launch with Virgin Orbit. Those plans were upended by Virgin Orbit's bankruptcy.
Rocket Lab finally deployed four 16U satellites for NorthStar in January 2024 after delays from an Electron launch failure. The satellites were equipped to track objects as small as five centimeters in low Earth orbit (LEO) and 40 centimeters in geostationary orbit. However, NorthStar alleges one satellite was lost and the other three failed to produce contract-compliant images, leading to legal action against Spire for alleged breach of contract, willful misconduct, and fraudulent misrepresentation, claims Spire denies. An arbitral tribunal held an evidentiary hearing on the dispute in January 2026.
Despite the legal spat, NorthStar's investor presentation for the SPAC merger refers to having four of a planned 96 satellites in orbit. A company spokesperson confirmed it has "four operational satellites in orbit, including satellites launched by Spire," but declined to comment on the apparent addition of a non-Spire spacecraft or whether it's connected to the lost satellite. The spokesperson stated the company has no further comment on ongoing legal proceedings, adding that the merger demonstrates momentum and will position NorthStar to address the urgent need for advanced SSA.