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Or sign-in if you have an account.A NordSpace Corp. crew member checks over the Taiga suborbital rocket during the company's first launch window in St. Lawrence, NL in late August 2025. After having to abort the first attempts, NordSpace hopes to finally launch the rocket sometime in 2026. NordSpaceIn the race for space, the CEO of an upstart rocket company believes Canada can accomplish its own missions. 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He’d also like to see a Canadian astronaut launched from Canuck soil by 2036 and a Mars rover exploring the red planet one year after that. He envisions a small Canadian space station, which he has already dubbed Alouette, in orbit by 2040. Breaking business news, incisive views, must-reads and market signals. Weekdays by 9 a.m.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Posthaste will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again“No more piggybacking payloads on other people’s rovers and other countries’ rovers,” Goel said in an interview. “We can do this. Companies and countries have done this for decades. This is very much within our capability set.” Rahul Goel is chief executive officer and founder of NordSpace. NordSpaceNordspace recently opened a new 60,000-square-foot rocket factory manufacturing campus in Markham, Ont., and pending approvals, plans to launch a suborbital rocket from southern Newfoundland in 2026 In May, Goel was a guest speaker at the Canadian Space Launch Conference. There, he outlined this long-term vision, what he believes Canada and NordSpace can accomplish with an annual investment of $250 million into space exploration. It goes beyond the company’s earth-based activities and the space station. A sample of an asteroid could easily be returned to Earth by 2043 or even sooner, Goel continued, and could be followed by Canada sending one of its own astronauts to land on the moon by 2045. If all that can be achieved, Goel believes Canada could have its flag planted on Mars and have a presence anywhere anyone else has reached in deep space by 2050. “Our company is operating on about a 25-year vision,” he said. “It can sound lofty in a near-term assessment, but it’s just a step-by-step process. It starts with smaller rockets and smaller satellites and smaller everything, and then you just grow them step-by-step.” Those early steps include continuing plans to launch a suborbital rocket from southern Newfoundland in 2026. After attempts for the inaugural test flight of its Taiga rocket had to be aborted because of technical issues in the summer and fall of 2025, NordSpace had hoped to get back to the outskirts of St. Lawrence on Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula to launch the rocket in the spring. NordSpace’s Atlantic Spaceport Complex in St. Lawrence, NL is under construction, with a tender for roadwork leading to a second launch pad expected to be awarded in the summer of 2026. NordSpaceThe launch was pushed back as the company pursued other goals, including moving into a new manufacturing site in Markham, Ont., participating in the Department of National Defence’s Launch the North project and continuing to progress towards its goal of building and launching orbital rockets and satellite systems. NordSpace has also been awaiting final approval from Transport Canada on when it can launch the Taiga rocket from the Atlantic Spaceport Complex the company is building in the St. Lawrence area. In April 2026, federal Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon introduced the Canadian Space Launch Act to deliver Canadian sovereign space launch capabilities. The act would enable the government to safely regulate and oversee space launch and re-entry activities conducted from Canadian territory. The legislation, according to a release at the time, would also “establish the necessary authorities to provide regulatory certainty to industry, support investment and infrastructure development and strengthen Canada’s ability to meet its international obligations related to space.” Canada is the only G7 country with no space launch capabilities and must rely on other countries, usually the United States, to reach orbit. Establishing Canadian sovereign space launch capabilities, said the minister, would drive billions in investments, create good-paying jobs, increase Canada’s sovereignty, reduce the Canadian economy’s reliance on the United States and support a commercial space launch and re-entry industry that could be worth $40 billion. Goel said his company appreciates Ottawa investing time and resources into upgrading and modernizing how launches in Canada will be authorized. He wants to ensure adherence to this new federal approach. “We’re just waiting for Nordspace’s launch to fall under the right regime and be authorized,” he said in an interview. “But our rocket’s ready to go and we’re excited to launch.” Goel doesn’t have any firm timeline on when Transport Canada will give NordSpace its next green light but said the launch window could open any time now. A drone shot of NordSpace’s new Rocket Factory manufacturing facility, which opened in Markham, Ont. in June 2026. NordSpaceThat doesn’t mean operations at NordSpace are in a holding pattern. Far from it. In March, NordSpace was awarded $8.33 million in Phase 1 grant funding as part of the Launch the North challenge administered by the Department of National Defence. The money will be used toward the development and demonstration of the company’s Tundra orbital launch vehicle, which NordSpace hopes will become Canada’s first domestically designed, built and operated orbital launch system. NordSpace is still aiming to launch Tundra from the Atlantic Spaceport Complex in Newfoundland in 2028. In addition to the new rocket factory manufacturing campus in Markham, NordSpace is also developing plans to establish a larger-scale manufacturing facility, either in Ontario or in Newfoundland and Labrador. “There’s strategic reasons for both, but we’re working actively on assessing both locations for the much larger factory,” said Goel. He said there are advantages to being closer to the launch site and to being where the expertise is, so any plant built in Newfoundland and Labrador would either be on the Burin Peninsula or in the St. John’s area. “We are looking at a couple of industrial facilities in Newfoundland,” he said. “If we do end up landing with manufacturing in Newfoundland — not just for rockets, but our satellites as well — then that’ll be huge from a job creation standpoint.” NordSpace engineers Tim Wang, front, and David Diaz pose for a photo with Chronos, the edge-AI imaging payload for wildfire and Arctic monitoring developed by NordSpace that will be launched into orbit on a NordSpace satellite via a SpaceX rocket in the fall of 2026. NordSpaceWhile the goal is to deploy its own satellites on its own rockets launched from its own facility on Canadian soil, NordSpace has shipped one of its satellites to California to be part of a SpaceX launch scheduled for the fall of 2026. The satellite was designed by NordSpace for Arctic monitoring and wildfire prevention. “It’s a pathfinder mission for exactly that, and we’re looking to grow that into a larger constellation over time,” said Goel. “Hopefully, that’s the first and last time it is launched on a non-Canadian space rocket.” Canadian government leaders toured NordSpace’s Atlantic Spaceport Complex in St. Lawrence, NL in July 2026. NordSpaceIn July, NordSpace hosted senior officials with the Department of National Defence, as well as officials from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and local government, at the Atlantic Spaceport Complex. They were given a tour of the site, an update on construction activities, and had the opportunity to meet with some local residents. The latest site work includes continued construction of the smaller of two launch pads the spaceport will feature. A tender will also soon be awarded for construction of a road to the larger site, from which orbital rockets will eventually be launched. “On the finance side, our NordSpace Ventures arm (its venture capital and strategic investment division) continues to invest in other companies, and we’re looking forward to a very large funding round in the foreseeable future,” said Goel. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.