Canada's first commercial rocket soon to launch after weather, technical delays
Commercial space launches are getting "Screeched-In" in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland.
Southeastern Newfoundland is shown here from the MODIS camera on board NASA's Terra satellite, from June 19, 2002. A small yellow circle highlights the area of St Lawrence, where NordSpace's first commercial rocket launch test is taking place. (Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC)
NordSpace's Canadian-made Taiga rocket is about to make its first test launch, opening up a new realm of possibilities for Canada's role in space exploration.
After days of weather delays due to the passing of Hurricane Erin in the Atlantic, Canadian aerospace company NordSpace is now ready to perform the first test launch of their new 3D-printed Taiga rocket. Liftoff was originally scheduled for Monday, August 24, 2025, from the company's Atlantic Spaceport Complex, near St. Lawrence, Nfld, along the southern shores of the Burin Peninsula.
With Erin gone, weather conditions cleared the way for a launch attempt on Friday, August 29. The first window, which opened at 5:30 a.m NDT (4:00 a.m. EDT), was called off due to a technical issue with the quick disconnect for the line feeding liquid nitrogen into the rocket's propulsion system.
The second window, which began at 3 p.m. NDT (1:30 p.m EDT), suffered from a delay due to fog, with the ground crew freezing the countdown at 59 minutes and 59 seconds. Once the countdown resumed, the clock reached down to T minus 4 minutes and 51 seconds, suffering holds at T-14:10 and T-9:18 along the way. The countdown then skipped to T-58 seconds, and a brief gout of flame was spotted coming from the rocket's engine cone.
With the clock frozen at that T-58s mark, the company posted a message that stated an ignition issue had been detected. With only a short time before the launch window closed for the day, it is likely that the attempt has now been scrubbed, and NordSpace will try again soon.
Watch the launch stream, below:
As of Friday evening, at 5:52 p.m. EDT, NordSpace posted an update to their X account, stating: "Thank you so much everyone for all the love and support! Unfortunately our launch license expires tonight, so we’ll be back in as little as a few days. Everything ran great until the very last moment. Looks like an ignition safety system triggered erroneously. We need a few days to rest and we’ll be back. More details to follow!"
If successful, Taiga will be the very first fully Canadian-built rocket, designed by a Canadian company, and launched from Canadian soil.
"This is something that our whole team has been working so long for, investing so much in," NordSpace CEO Rahul Goel told CBC News on Thursday. "We want to deliver success."
"This pathfinder mission for NordSpace, called "Getting Screeched In", will be a demonstration flight of our fully Canadian-made sub-orbital rocket - Taiga," the company wrote on their website.
"We believe that it is critical for a Canadian launch capability to be supported by Canadian designed and manufactured rockets, launching from Canadian soil, by a 100% Canadian owned company. Our team has been painstakingly building our Taiga launch vehicle, powered by our proprietary 3D printed liquid rocket engine, called the Hadfield Engine."
A sub-orbital rocket flight is one that lifts off with only enough thrust to carry it into the upper atmosphere. In contrast, an orbital flight will reach an altitude of several hundred kilometres above the ground, and make at least one full pass around the planet.
The launch of Taiga, according to NordSpace, will last for roughly 60 seconds before the flight ends with the rocket splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.
(Thumbnail image shows Newfoundland's Burin and Avalon Peninsulas in a picture taken by Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques on June 24, 2019)