"In August of this year, Rahul Goel will stand on the rocky cliffs of St. Lawrence, NL, watching a plume of fire rip across the sky.
If everything goes right, his company, NordSpace, will make history by orchestrating Canada’s first commercial rocket launch.
Canada was the fourth nation in the world to launch a satellite into space, helped pioneer aerospace engineering, and famously built the Canadarm. But for all its expertise, Canada has never launched a rocket from its own soil. Every satellite, every national security payload, every commercial launch is outsourced, mostly to the US."
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At the same time, space is a growing industry that will likely change the way we do things on the surface. I’d rather that we have some control over that than leave everything up to the americans. We could also benefit economically and use those funds for projects in other sectors.
There are also some direct practical applications, like satellite Internet in remote regions, and Earth observation / climate research.
I don’t know how it will all play out, but this seems like a good thing. Why pay musk for starlink and spacex launches when we can set up something for ourselves.
Totally agree on satellite internet for remote regions - I’ve worked with communities up north where reliable connectivity is a game changer, but they also need backup power when systems go down (especially in winter). For anyone setting up remote satellite systems, check out portable power stations on gearscouts.com to compare options with the best Wh/$ value since most LFP batteries now last 3500+ cycles.