Canadian rocket startups race to close the country's G7 launch gap

Canada has seen a growing contingent of homegrown startups step up after the government in Ottawa smartened up to its untenable position as one of the only G7 nations that cannot send a satellite into orbit without extensive help from beyond its shores.

With deteriorating United States relations escalating the urgency of the situation, the Canadian government has funneled cash into incentivizing the growth of its local space industry. SpaceX’s (NASDAQ: SPCX) decision not to take any Falcon 9 bookings past 2028 has now sweetened the pot.

Canada is pouring cash into space push

Canada Rocket Company, NordSpace and Reaction Dynamics are three of the standout beneficiaries of the CAD $305 million the Canadian government committed under its federal Launch the North program. Each of them has received a first installment of CAD $8.3 million in May 2026.

Other than funding for startups, infrastructure is also going up, with $200 million in federal investment going to a Canada-owned spaceport announced in March.

The results are already showing up too. NordSpace framed the orbital-class engine it unveiled on August 19 as Canada’s largest steps yet toward sovereign launch. Down the coast, Maritime Launch ran a successful hypersonic suborbital test from Canso, Nova Scotia, on June 10, according to the Centre for International Governance Innovation, which reported that both Maritime Launch and NordSpace expect to reach orbital flight within roughly a year.

Which G7 nations can’t send rockets into space? 

Canada is the only G7 nation that still cannot launch rockets into space without outside help from the United States on most occasions, even though the country has actually reached the Moon.

However, on April 21, 2026, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon introduced the Canadian Space Launch Act, a bill that sets the parameters for rockets to launch and re-enter the Canadian airspace.

The plan, if it works, will lay the blocks for a commercial launch industry that Canada believes could be worth as much as $40 billion. Reaching those estimates could be helped by the trickle-down effects of decisions at Elon Musk’s SpaceX that could have customers competing for rides to orbit with booming satellite launch demand.

Canada Rocket Company co-founder and CEO Hugh Kolias is bracing for a “space super cycle” that could see around 100,000 satellites orbiting Earth by 2030, up from the current 18,000. 

Kolias’ Toronto-based firm is building its R-2, a reusable medium-lift rocket, to get ahead of the SpaceX 2028 Falcon 9 cutoff date. Available specifications confirm the seven methane-and-oxygen engines on the rocket have enough thrust to carry about 12,500 kilograms.

Canada Rocket Company has raised $22.5 million, mostly from Canadian investors, including the Business Development Bank of Canada. The firm has also brought back nine Canadians from SpaceX, Blue Origin and Europe’s ArianeGroup, growing to 25 staff in July from two in January.

The early signals are bullish, but the enormity of the task cannot be overemphasized. As Kolias mentioned, a medium-lift rocket could routinely take between eight and ten years, with 300 to 500 engineers and technicians working on a budget of at least US$500 million. 

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