Canada is the only G7 country that can’t launch its own satellites. Now, a Canadian rocket company is waiting on regulators for a first test flight.
Canada is the only G7 country that can’t launch its own satellites. A Canadian rocket company says it will take a first step toward changing that, once regulators sign off.
NordSpace is preparing to launch its Taiga rocket from its spaceport in St. Lawrence, N.L. The suborbital test flight would be the first big test for a launch industry that Ottawa has spent the past year backing with defence contracts, grants and launch-pad deals.
CEO Rahul Goel told iPolitics on Tuesday the company was “on track” to launch, but is currently pending approval from Transport Canada.
If successful, it would be the company’s first launch, after a few attempts in 2025 that were scrubbed. NordSpace would also become the first Canadian-built commercial rocket launched from a Canadian spaceport.
The launch push comes as the National Defence signs a $20-million, 10-year contract with NordSpace, announced Wednesday at the SpaceBound conference in Ottawa, giving the military priority access to the company’s spaceport and future rockets.
In April, Ottawa tabled Bill C-28, the Canadian Space Launch Act, which set out a framework for licensing rocket launches and re-entries from Canadian soil. The bill is still before Parliament.
READ MORE: Ottawa introduces bill that aims to launch ‘homegrown’ satellites to space
Until it passes, Transport Canada approves launches one at a time under interim rules. NordSpace says it’s running its suborbital flights under those rules as if they were orbital launches as a way to practice the process with regulators before attempting orbit.
“We are intentionally conducting our suborbital launches under the commercial orbital launch regulations as a mechanism for us to begin working with Transport Canada,” Ryan Anderson, NordSpace Director in business development, said in an interview with iPolitics.
Anderson said the company plans to fly eight to 16 suborbital missions before its first orbital attempt.
“We need launch operations, a spacecraft and a regulatory regime in Canada that allows us to be globally competitive,” he said.
Keeping up with the space ambitions
The practice runs are meant to prepare for something much harder.
“Orbital launch is incredibly complicated,” Anderson said.
NordSpace is aiming to reach orbit by 2028. That’s the timeline National Defence set in “Launch the North,” a contest to get a Canadian-designed rocket launching Canadian satellites from domestic soil by 2028 at the latest.
Anderson said the 2028 target “achievable,” but said it “requires a lot of things to go right.”
Hugh Kolias, co-founder and CEO of Canada Rocket Company, called the program “very ambitious.” His company, which is building a larger, medium-lift rocket, is targeting 2032.
“It always takes six to eight years to bring a launch vehicle of any size to orbit,” said Kolias in an interview with iPolitics.
He said one of the biggest struggles is avoiding bottlenecks, with a shortage of machinists and parts suppliers even before new defence and space spending adds to demand.
“Every week it takes to get a part done and completed is a week of time that we don’t have,” Kolias said.
He credited federal policy for getting the industry this far.
“We wouldn’t be here without the defence industrial strategy, without Launch the North… that’s a really important point because it shows policy can work and it can catalyze industries, and it can catalyze investment and entrepreneurs to do things,” Kolias said.
With the federal budget set for Nov. 5, Kolias said he expects more money for space and launch. Still, he said, the next step is up to the industry.
“A lot of it now is falling on the companies to just execute,” he said.