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Information About
NordSpace's Maiden
Flight from the
Atlantic Spaceport Complex
Latest Updates
September 25, 2025 08:00: We have made the decision to postpone our launch attempt, and we will share a new expected launch date in the coming weeks. After detailed review over the last 15 hours, the root cause has been discovered to be related to our propellant quality slightly differing between vehicle tests at our test facility in Ontario, compared to our first launch test in Newfoundland and Labrador at our spaceport. This led to a fuel-rich scenario. All systems on the rocket and ground performed nominally after careful review. Personnel, rocket and the launch pad are perfectly safe and secure, and our safety systems operated nominally. As our company's manufacturing and testing facilities are located in Ontario, there's no expedient way to make the necessary modification with the temporary infrastructure and suppliers we have in place at our launch site. Although all our major facilities and capabilities are located in Ontario, we are rapidly developing our permanent presence in Newfoundland and Labrador both in St. John's and in St. Lawrence to better support Canada's sovereign launch efforts. This includes on-site propellent generation, manufacturing, water deluge systems, range tracking radar, weather monitoring stations, satellite communications, mobile all-season launch hangars, permanent mission control, and more.
Thank you to everyone who joined and supported us for this second campaign. We are proud to have come further than anyone ever has in Canada, with the first commercial Canadian-made rocket ready to launch from a Canadian spaceport. This is just the very beginning of a long and exciting journey to orbit and beyond, and we will be back on the pad quite soon. Our primary mission objective was to treat this sub-orbital test campaign as an orbital test campaign to front load the operational and procedural challenges well in advance. We have learned nearly all the key lessons we hoped to about executing commercial launches in Canada, end-to-end, and could not be more thrilled with the outcome. Canada, ourselves included, has a lot of work to do to make sovereign orbital space launch a reality on the regulatory, policy, and investment side to catch up with not only the rest of the G7, but 25+ nations further ahead.
Next week, we turn 3 years old. In 3 years, our team has grown to nearly 25 people, with 10 key individuals building not just our kerosene/liquid oxygen liquid fuelled Taiga sub-orbital rocket over the last year, but also our in-house 3D printed Hadfield rocket engines, our engine test facility, our spaceport from the ground up, end-to-end stakeholder management and approval processes for launch authorizations, and a revenue generating business. We are also launching our first pathfinder satellite, Terra-Nova, next June aboard Transporter-17 to provide edge-AI imaging capabilities to predict wildfires and other threats from space and one day save lives, we launched our own venture fund (NordSpace Ventures) to support Canadian space/defence startups in their early days, we are quadrupling the size of our manufacturing facilities, and are announcing our first lunar mission over the coming months.
The journey we are on, to build Canada into a true spacefaring nation, by building an end-to-end space missions capability, will be one of the toughest things anyone has ever built in Canada. Space is tough, but we are tougher.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted, is what a good friend told us last night at our launch pad while we stood there on the cold, dark and wet launch pad wondering why our rocket did everything exactly as we expected but did not launch. We wanted a launch, but we knew doing all of this for the first time as a fully commercial effort wouldn't be easy. Our team is confidently working on our Tundra orbital vehicle behind the scenes to unlock access to orbit from Canadian soil for the first time. Look forward to some big updates related to our orbital program over the coming months, and please visit the Town of St. Lawrence to experience the beauty not just of the people who took such great care of us, but the breathtaking landscape that will soon become Canada's gateway to space.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. Codspeed!
Show Previous UpdatesSeptember 25, 2025 08:00: We have made the decision to postpone our launch attempt, and we will share a new expected launch date in the coming weeks. After detailed review over the last 15 hours, the root cause has been discovered to be related to our propellant quality slightly differing between vehicle tests at our test facility in Ontario, compared to our first launch test in Newfoundland and Labrador at our spaceport. This led to a fuel-rich scenario. All systems on the rocket and ground performed nominally after careful review. Personnel, rocket and the launch pad are perfectly safe and secure, and our safety systems operated nominally. As our company's manufacturing and testing facilities are located in Ontario, there's no expedient way to make the necessary modification with the temporary infrastructure and suppliers we have in place at our launch site. Although all our major facilities and capabilities are located in Ontario, we are rapidly developing our permanent presence in Newfoundland and Labrador both in St. John's and in St. Lawrence to better support Canada's sovereign launch efforts. This includes on-site propellent generation, manufacturing, water deluge systems, range tracking radar, weather monitoring stations, satellite communications, mobile all-season launch hangars, permanent mission control, and more.
Thank you to everyone who joined and supported us for this second campaign. We are proud to have come further than anyone ever has in Canada, with the first commercial Canadian-made rocket ready to launch from a Canadian spaceport. This is just the very beginning of a long and exciting journey to orbit and beyond, and we will be back on the pad quite soon. Our primary mission objective was to treat this sub-orbital test campaign as an orbital test campaign to front load the operational and procedural challenges well in advance. We have learned nearly all the key lessons we hoped to about executing commercial launches in Canada, end-to-end, and could not be more thrilled with the outcome. Canada, ourselves included, has a lot of work to do to make sovereign orbital space launch a reality on the regulatory, policy, and investment side to catch up with not only the rest of the G7, but 25+ nations further ahead.
Next week, we turn 3 years old. In 3 years, our team has grown to nearly 25 people, with 10 key individuals building not just our kerosene/liquid oxygen liquid fuelled Taiga sub-orbital rocket over the last year, but also our in-house 3D printed Hadfield rocket engines, our engine test facility, our spaceport from the ground up, end-to-end stakeholder management and approval processes for launch authorizations, and a revenue generating business. We are also launching our first pathfinder satellite, Terra-Nova, next June aboard Transporter-17 to provide edge-AI imaging capabilities to predict wildfires and other threats from space and one day save lives, we launched our own venture fund (NordSpace Ventures) to support Canadian space/defence startups in their early days, we are quadrupling the size of our manufacturing facilities, and are announcing our first lunar mission over the coming months.
The journey we are on, to build Canada into a true spacefaring nation, by building an end-to-end space missions capability, will be one of the toughest things anyone has ever built in Canada. Space is tough, but we are tougher.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted, is what a good friend told us last night at our launch pad while we stood there on the cold, dark and wet launch pad wondering why our rocket did everything exactly as we expected but did not launch. We wanted a launch, but we knew doing all of this for the first time as a fully commercial effort wouldn't be easy. Our team is confidently working on our Tundra orbital vehicle behind the scenes to unlock access to orbit from Canadian soil for the first time. Look forward to some big updates related to our orbital program over the coming months, and please visit the Town of St. Lawrence to experience the beauty not just of the people who took such great care of us, but the breathtaking landscape that will soon become Canada's gateway to space.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. Codspeed!
About This Launch
This August, NordSpace will be making history by performing the first commercial rocket launch in Canada — a fully privately funded and managed initiative crucial for Canada to build a space launch capability that supports our security, economy, and sovereignty. This launch will also be the first commercial liquid rocket launch in Canadian history, and the first commercial launch from a commercial Canadian spaceport. As you'll note, the word commercial is significant. Globally, the commercial space economy has grown over the past 20 years to accomplish feats only nations and their governments were able to accomplish. In fact, countries like New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, India, the United Kingdom, and many more have built sovereign space launch capabilities ahead of Canada.
Canada was the third nation to build a satellite with Alouette-1 in 1962, and has a long history of incredible successes in space from robotics to astronauts. Although our nation has never had an orbital launch program (which is what NordSpace aims to deliver), back in the 1950s we did have a government funded and supported sub-orbital rocket program which led to the development of the Black Brant and the Churchill Rocket Research Range in collaboration with Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) and the National Research Council Canada. In contrast, so far NordSpace's efforts have been entirely privately financed and managed, in line with the growth of commercial space leading the way around the world. We take great pride in advancing Canada's efforts from decades past and taking this first step to open the floodgates to space from Canadian soil.
This pathfinder mission for NordSpace, called "Getting Screeched In", will be a demonstration flight of our fully Canadian-made sub-orbital rocket - Taiga. We believe that it is critical for a Canadian launch capability to be supported by Canadian designed and manufactured rockets, launching from Canadian soil, by a 100% Canadian owned company. Our team has been painstakingly building our Taiga launch vehicle, powered by our proprietary 3D printed liquid rocket engine, called the Hadfield Engine. Explore the FAQ below for more information about this historic launch, and we welcome you to join us as we open this new frontier for Canada.
This August, NordSpace will be making history by performing the first commercial rocket launch in Canada — a fully privately funded and managed initiative crucial for Canada to build a space launch capability that supports our security, economy, and sovereignty. This launch will also be the first commercial liquid rocket launch in Canadian history, and the first commercial launch from a commercial Canadian spaceport. As you'll note, the word commercial is significant. Globally, the commercial space economy has grown over the past 20 years to accomplish feats only nations and their governments were able to accomplish. In fact, countries like New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, India, the United Kingdom, and many more have built sovereign space launch capabilities ahead of Canada.
Canada was the third nation to build a satellite with Alouette-1 in 1962, and has a long history of incredible successes in space from robotics to astronauts. Although our nation has never had an orbital launch program (which is what NordSpace aims to deliver), back in the 1950s we did have a government funded and supported sub-orbital rocket program which led to the development of the Black Brant and the Churchill Rocket Research Range in collaboration with Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) and the National Research Council Canada. In contrast, so far NordSpace's efforts have been entirely privately financed and managed, in line with the growth of commercial space leading the way around the world. We take great pride in advancing Canada's efforts from decades past and taking this first step to open the floodgates to space from Canadian soil.
This pathfinder mission for NordSpace, called "Getting Screeched In", will be a demonstration flight of our fully Canadian-made sub-orbital rocket - Taiga. We believe that it is critical for a Canadian launch capability to be supported by Canadian designed and manufactured rockets, launching from Canadian soil, by a 100% Canadian owned company. Our team has been painstakingly building our Taiga launch vehicle, powered by our proprietary 3D printed liquid rocket engine, called the Hadfield Engine. Explore the FAQ below for more information about this historic launch, and we welcome you to join us as we open this new frontier for Canada.
