Markham, Ontario-based aerospace startup NordSpace has moved into a new headquarters designed to manufacture the company’s rockets.
The news: NordSpace announced Tuesday the opening of its new, 60,000-square-foot Rocket Factory 1 (RF-1) campus in Markham, northeast of Toronto. Designed to host up to 255 employees, RF-1 will produce the startup’s light and medium-lift orbital launch vehicles and other space systems. It is expected to become fully operational over the coming months. NordSpace said the campus marks the company’s transition to production mode and will anchor its three-site national footprint as it looks to equip Canada with sovereign space launch capabilities.
From the source: “RF-1 is the production engine that makes that sovereignty real and ensures Canada is not left permanently dependent on the priorities and schedules of foreign providers, and is instead the country that exports high value solutions to its allies,” NordSpace founder and CEO Rahul Goel said in a news release.
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Following the thread: NordSpace, which was recently featured in BetaKit Most Ambitious, is part of a group of Canadian startups that want to ensure Canada is no longer forced to hitch rides to space with American firms—a priority the Government of Canada has committed to with funding. NordSpace is developing orbital launch vehicles, 3D-printed rocket engines, and a spaceport to send small Canadian payloads into space, and the company hopes to do so from Canadian soil.
Final thought: RF-1 consolidates NordSpace’s in-house design, engineering, manufacturing, integration, and mission control capabilities under the same roof, and supports an $8-million federally funded project NordSpace is participating in. The site joins NordSpace’s 50-acre propulsion test range in Eastern Ontario, and the commercial launch hub it’s developing in Newfoundland and Labrador. While RF-1 is another key piece of the puzzle for NordSpace, it is not the last—the firm has already acquired land for a 200,000-square-foot facility dedicated to making its reusable medium-lift rocket. Construction on that is set to begin later this year.
Feature image courtesy NordSpace.