Ottawa's 10th year hosting the world's largest space hackathon. One weekend, real challenges, free to join.
Official local event of the NASA Space Apps Challenge
Developers. Designers. Engineers. Makers. Data people. Students still figuring out what they're good at, and hobbyists who already know. If you've ever stayed up too late chasing an idea, you'll feel at home here.
Pick from a global slate of challenges spanning software, data, design, and storytelling — pulled straight from NASA and Canadian Space Agency open data. Multidisciplinary by design: the strongest teams mix coders with designers, scientists with storytellers.
See the schedule →Get your hands on real hardware. Ottawa's own physical challenge, built with Carleton's space clubs — this year, tracking the sun to keep a lunar outpost powered.
See this year's challenge →
The Hardware Challenge is Still Being Designed
Register Free
Space Apps Ottawa has been bringing this community together for 11 years — organized locally, backed by the Canadian Space Society, and run almost entirely by the people who show up to build alongside you.
Meet the organizers →Work alongside developers, designers, and engineers who think the way you do — every discipline, one weekend, in the room or on Discord.
Turn an idea into something tangible in a single weekend — real data, real constraints, a real deadline.
Mentors and experts are on hand all weekend — onsite and from the Canadian Space Agency — so a hard problem doesn't become a dead end.
Two Ottawa projects advance into NASA's global judging every year. Yours could be next.
* All times are in EST.
Student-led team building real satellites — designing, testing, and launching CubeSats while working mission design and systems integration alongside industry experts.
Carleton's largest robotics group — over 100 members across every discipline, building a Mars rover each year for the University Rover Challenge: autonomy, spacecraft servicing, life detection, long-range traversal.
Student-run and open to everyone — Astronomy Nights, research talks, and community events that make the night sky, and the latest in space exploration, accessible to all Carleton students.