00:00At a coastal site on the southeastern tip of Newfoundland, a brand new rocket is nearly
00:04ready for flight.
00:05It was built entirely in Canada, fueled by kerosene and ambition, and spearheaded by
00:10a startup with its eyes on orbit.
00:12Nord Space is on track to conduct the first commercial liquid-fueled rocket launch in
00:16Canadian history, a suborbital shot scheduled for mid-August.
00:19Rooting for the company behind the scenes is ProtoSpace, an aerospace manufacturing
00:24arm of Canadian firm ProtoCase, boasting high-velocity production and delivery of specialized space-grade
00:29components within two to three days, compared to industry norms of weeks or months.
00:34Together, Nord Space and ProtoSpace represent a growing push to establish a domestic space
00:38industry in Canada that supports its own launch infrastructure, source manufacturing, and orbital
00:43launch capability.
00:44Rahul Goel is CEO and co-founder of Nord Space.
00:48It has played a long and important role in space, but it's kind of taken a major step
00:55back in the last decade or two, where we've kind of mainly been playing a participatory
01:00role instead of a leadership one, and one of the biggest gaps in our value chain has
01:03always been launch.
01:05Despite a storied history in robotics and space contributions, such as Canada Arm, Dexter,
01:10Radarsat, and others, Canada has never launched anything to orbit from its own soil.
01:14Nord Space aims to change that.
01:16The company's Tyga rocket isn't going to reach orbit when it launches in August, but it's
01:20a big step toward the company's ultimate goal.
01:22Tyga is a small, liquid-fueled hypersonic launch vehicle capable of carrying just over
01:27110 pounds above the Karman line.
01:29This summer's shakedown cruise will be a low-altitude demonstration of Tyga's capabilities.
01:33You know, we get this wind under our belts, and then we'll attempt a second flight later
01:37this year or early next year to demonstrate its full capability.
01:41That capability extends beyond just Nord Space's launch vehicle.
01:44Part of Tyga's success will point to a larger accomplishment Nord Space is hoping to achieve, proving
01:49that it's possible to launch a Canadian-built rocket carrying Canadian payloads from a Canadian
01:54spaceport.
01:55Nord Space has set what it regards as a steady, realistic pace for itself as it keeps its eyes
01:59on orbit.
02:00The company plans to follow this summer's launch with a second Tyga flight in 2026, a full
02:05hypersonic space shot mission.
02:07After that comes Tundra, an orbital vehicle comparable to Rocket Lab's Electron rocket,
02:12which will be capable of launching 1,100 pounds to low-Earth orbit and 550 pounds to sun-synchronous orbit.
02:18Nord Space hopes to debut Tundra in late 2027.
02:22Nord Space's Atlantic Spaceport Complex, ASX, in Newfoundland is located at 46 degrees
02:27latitude, allowing the range to potentially support a wide variety of launch inclinations.
02:32Goel says the company will launch Tundra as a pathfinder vehicle within the small payload
02:36market for a couple of years while simultaneously developing an even bigger rocket.
02:40By the end of the decade, we're doing at least one launch a month.
02:43We think that's a lot more reasonable than new companies coming out of the gate who say they're
02:47going to launch 50 times a year.
02:49In the 2030s, Nord Space plans to scale to Titan, a 5-ton TOLEO reusable rocket aimed
02:55at matching the capabilities of launch vehicles like SpaceX's Falcon 9.
02:58We're really treating Canada as a pathfinder market.
03:01Our estimation is that we can have about four to seven launches of our launch vehicle just
03:06with Canadian payloads, and a lot of them national security-focused.
03:10They all have to go south of the border or otherwise.
03:14Goel says he estimates ASX can support several launches a year just with Canadian payloads.
03:19In fact, Canadian payloads, specifically national security payloads, are one of the driving
03:24motivations for Canada to support its own orbital launch capabilities.
03:27They're the ones who really are sending the strongest demand signals that, hey, look, this will be
03:32really important from a national security standpoint.
03:34Space is increasingly a war-fighting domain.
03:36We're not excited about relying on foreign partners, no matter how close they may be, to
03:42get our assets to space.
03:43We have all these payloads that kind of just sit on shelves.
03:46Let's just toss them on your rocket and get them up there.
03:49Goel says that Nord Space could be positioned to address an international launch market sometime
03:53in the tail end of the early 2030s.
03:55Nord Space is developing all of its rockets in-house, including the engines powering them.
04:00Tyga's first-stage Hadfield engines and second-stage Garneau engines are 3D-printed,
04:05regeneratively cooled, additively manufactured, and tested at Nord Space's own facility
04:10two hours east of its headquarters.
04:12While Nord Space is building its rockets, Protospace is helping to speed up Canadian innovation
04:17and manufacturing to support a budding rocket and aerospace industry.
04:21At first, Goel assumed Nord Space would need to import a lot.
04:24Then, he and his team looked around.
04:26We have a very robust industrial base here.
04:30When we started Nord Space, we had no idea that we'd identify 10 minutes within our radius
04:37about five companies that are providing mission-critical components to the engine assemblies for Raptor
04:43and Merlin engines.
04:45Merlin engines power SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launchers, and Raptor's power the company's
04:49new Starship rocket.
04:51Doug Milburn serves as chairman for Protospace, which specializes in high-velocity, mass custom
04:56manufacturing, known for delivering certified ITAR and Canadian goods program-compliant aerospace
05:02parts in days instead of weeks.
05:04Those who win in innovation are those who get velocity.
05:07Milburn warns companies of hampering their own progress by stifling engineering teams' momentum
05:12with multiple purchasing routes for an increasing amount of smaller, more specialized parts required
05:17for whatever project they take on.
05:19You know, if you look at the cost of a part to an aerospace team like people like Raul, your
05:24engineers are your costs.
05:25It's not the parts.
05:27It's your engineers.
05:28You know, we'll see an old-school aerospace, you know, put a bid package out for development parts.
05:34The amount of money for your engineers to put in a bid package, your purchases to work on it, it
05:38dwarfs the cost of the individual parts a lot of the time.
05:43But the minute you start getting in the way of your development team's velocity, you've just thrown a wrench into
05:49things.
05:49You've upped your costs and you've dropped your odds of success.
05:52That's what Protospace is.
05:54You know, as a result, we play for a bunch of the big guys, and then we have these incredibly
05:59exciting startups like Raul,
06:02and his company is just really, really cool, doing some really neat stuff.
06:07Milburn says Canada's aerospace sector is more extensive than it's given credit for.
06:11There's the core stuff that tends to be done company by company now.
06:15My take is the bulk of what's done can get done in Canada.
06:20But getting a rocket off the ground in Canada isn't just about manufacturing and assembling the parts.
06:25Nordspace and companies like Protospace must navigate a regulatory system that's still finding its footing.
06:30If they're going to regulate private space the way that they regulate general aviation in Canada,
06:38then the thing's just, it's dead in the ground.
06:42The, we can't do this in Canada is a natural reaction in a country that is naturally risk averse.
06:49The nation is also lacking some of the most critical regulatory components to allow companies like Nordspace to move forward
06:55with progress.
06:56Canada doesn't yet have a fully realized launch licensing system.
07:00So Nordspace chose to push the envelope deliberately, applying for a commercial orbital class license even for its suborbital demo.
07:07Goel says his company wanted to force its TIGA launch to be regulated under commercial space launch requirements.
07:13While this requires significantly more boxes to check for the upcoming flight than would otherwise be necessary for a suborbital
07:19launch,
07:19Nordspace wanted to make sure all parties involved would have a confident understanding of the regulatory procedures.
07:24By the time in 2027 we're ready for orbital, we're not stuck on the pad because the regulators aren't able
07:31to actually regulate this thing, even if they wanted to.
07:35There's a lot of this front loading, a huge reason as well why we can't just build rockets.
07:39We have to bring the whole system together with us, policy, regulations, all the different agencies that it affects.
07:46He agrees with Milburn's risk-averse observation of Canada, but hopes Nordspace can help change that.
07:52And Canada, very much unlike the United States, is a much more risk-averse nation, and, you know, that is
07:58what it is.
07:59Maybe we can tweak that over time, especially with the success of launch, I think that will send a strong
08:04signal.
08:05He hopes that signal resonates throughout the country, but doesn't expect the gospel to spread all at once.
08:09In fact, in Canada, you mentioned to anybody that you're building a rocket engine and you want to test them
08:14on their farm or on an industrial plot.
08:16They're just going to have an allergic reaction to it right away.
08:19And we got picked out of every location you could imagine, so open and we had to bite the bullet,
08:23buy an old mine, and then build our engine test facility over there.
08:27But the point is that we want to open that up for others as well.
08:30Nordspace isn't building for a space industry of one.
08:33Its 150-acre ASX coastal site will include two launch pads,
08:37one specifically designated for third-party use.
08:40We're building two pads very specifically so that we can offer the second one to somebody else,
08:45ideally a domestic launch partner, but also foreign.
08:48It's a very strategically located site.
08:51The United States is under a lot of pressure for launch site capacity.
08:54The newly signed or about to be signed technology safeguards agreement with the United States means that
09:00rockets and systems can flow north of the border for the first time.
09:04And we strategically located it as well to be about 100 kilometers east of the French territory of St. Pierre
09:10and Miquelon.
09:10So we're trying to be as accommodating as possible to even European launch providers.
09:17It's very challenging, I think, for somebody in Canada to take the path that we're taking,
09:22where you have an entrepreneur who's a crazy kind of space geek his whole life, spent the last decade acquiring
09:30his own small fortune.
09:32But getting to that point, we're now investing it all back in Canada.
09:35It's really the only way.
09:36But I consider that a tremendous responsibility to create infrastructure that other Canadians can leverage.
09:44It's also a good sales opportunity for us.
09:46Unlike in the U.S., Canadian companies aren't bound by ITAR, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations,
09:52making Nordspace's business model and technology attractive to global markets.
09:56Because we're ITAR-free in a lot of ways, copy and paste this model to other nations
10:01that are looking to develop their own sovereign launch capabilities and sovereign space programs,
10:05but don't have the technical capability, manufacturing and industrial base and all of that,
10:09and use that model and help other nations actually develop their own space programs,
10:14nations like Kenya, Philippines, Peru, and others that we've been in conversations with.
10:19I think Canada is a very unique country, and we're really serious about making this happen,
10:25not just because of the economic and national security benefits,
10:28but I really believe, born and raised Canadian, that we need a win in this country,
10:36as something that people can point to for decades and say, look, they did this against all odds,
10:42and I don't want this to seem like this story where you have a bunch of people that did something
10:49that seemed impossible.
10:50This is possible.
10:51So I'm really trying to make sure that this is a story that it doesn't just have the economic and
10:57security
10:57and environmental impact and all that we hope it does,
11:00but it really becomes a symbol for Canada for what we can do in all sorts of domains, not just
11:07space.
11:08And I think space, it has this ability to inspire unlike anything else,
11:13and I think that Northspace will really tap into that for the first time for Canada,
11:19and I can't wait to see what that results in over the course of my lifetime.
11:27I'll see you next time.
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