After another round of unsuccessful launch attempts, NordSpace’s dreams of Canada’s first commercial rocket launch remain temporarily grounded.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
The company planned to launch its Taiga rocket this week from the Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) site near St. Lawrence, Nfld., but was unsuccessful due to a slight difference in the quality of its propellants used between tests and the live launch attempt, the company said in a blog post on its website. A new launch date is expected sometime in the “coming weeks.”
The company decided to forgo its second launch window after multiple attempts were halted by minor fires on the launchpad. NordSpace said its propellant issues led to a “fuel-rich scenario” where its engine was burning more fuel than the air it was taking in.
“Personnel, rocket and the launch pad are perfectly safe and secure, and our safety systems operated nominally,” the blog post reads.
Since NordSpace’s manufacturing and testing facilities are in Ontario, it doesn’t have the capacity to make quick, necessary modifications while it’s in the coastal town. The company said it’s still working on developing its permanent presence in Newfoundland to better support future launches, including on-site propellant generation and manufacturing.
“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,” the company said. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
RELATED: NordSpace’s rocket launch thwarted by faulty safety system, weather delays
The attempted launch followed a series of scrubbed attempts in late August, which were thwarted by unsuitable weather conditions and technical setbacks. On Aug. 29, the team was 58 seconds away from flight when a faulty trigger of the rocket’s ignition safety system forced a delay.
CEO Rahul Goel, who founded the company in 2022, said the mishaps were “par for the course” when attempting a rocket launch in unpredictable environmental conditions. The NordSpace team has since worked to improve its processes so it could “launch on a dime” when the conditions are right.
After the failed attempts, Nordspace scored another launch window from Sept. 20 to 27. The Taiga launch had been in the works for over a year, as the company secured approvals from multiple government agencies. Delays persisted, however, including a “pad anomaly” on Tuesday that caused a minor fire requiring cleanup and inspection.
NordSpace was featured in BetaKit Most Ambitious for its goal of facilitating Canada’s first commercial space launch. The aerospace company is on a mission to develop space launch vehicles, spaceports, and satellites entirely in Canada. It also wants to bolster Canada’s space mission capacity, which it argues will aid the country’s security and sovereignty.
The company plans to build out ASX’s capacity for future launches, including another sub-orbital trip next year and an orbital launch of the larger Tundra rocket in 2027.
NordSpace isn’t the only Canadian company targeting the stars. Montréal-based Reaction Dynamics is also planning to launch a rocket into orbit from a planned Spaceport Nova Scotia facility in 2028.
Feature image courtesy NordSpace.