Canadian Firms Make Major Push For Domestic Launch Vehicle Development
Although Canada has contributed highly capable astronauts and space-bound technologies to the global efforts outside our atmosphere, it's never had its own space industry complete with launch vehicles. That's changing in 2025, though, as a pair of private companies are pushing to develop and maintain their own Canadian launch vehicles and aerospace production industry, giving the Northern country their own route to space without relying on other countries, companies, or their launch vehicles.
The primary firm leading the charge is NordSpace, a Canadian aerospace company developing Canada's first homegrown launch vehicle: Taiga. The first sub-orbital launch will take place in August, but Nordspace has ambitious goals to make future orbital vehicles that are affordable, responsive, globally available, and even somewhat environmentally friendly. Also backing these efforts is ProtoSpace, another Canadian aerospace company but one that's focused on developing and producing space grade components within just a few days, as opposed to the weeks and months often expected in the industry.
"Canada has played a long and important role in space," NordSpace CEO and co-founder Rahul Goel told Space.com . "We've kind of mainly been playing a participatory role instead of a leadership one, and one of the biggest gaps in our value chain has always been launch."
The Taiga rocket is an effort to change that. The company is planning a couple of sub-orbital, hypersonic tests through 2026, only looking to orbital rocketry after that. Both rocket designs will use low-emission fuels which also produce less noise, and there will be attempts to make first stages ocean recoverable.
If Taiga tests prove successful, NordSpace will move on to developing its Tundra rocket. Although it's still undergoing testing, it is designed to carry a 1,100-pound payload into low Earth orbit for less than $5,000 a pound, making it a potentially affordable option for lightweight payloads.
After that, it's all about scaling up, eventually producing a Tundra per month to provide a regular, reliable launch vehicle for Canadian interests and select international customers.
ProtoSpace will be backing up NordSpace, but it is helping to accelerate Canada's aerospace industry as a whole, and setting new standards of responsiveness in the process. Where traditional high-quality companies for aerospace vehicles and technologies can take time to manufacture, ProtoSpace is doing it faster while maintaining quality, and getting delivery times down to just days. That can help companies like Nordspace innovate faster, and help improve launch cadence in the future.
NordSpace is also developing commercial launch facilities for third parties, and Canada's space regulatory system is being overhauled to reduce red tape and speed up the ability of companies to launch and test space-bound vehicles and technologies.
