See the launch of Concordia University's student rocket Starsailor on Friday.
Space Concordia
For the first time this century, a rocket built and launched in Canada has reached for outer space – an attempt made not by a private company or government agency, but by a group of engineering students at Concordia University in Montreal who spent seven years turning their homegrown dreams of space flight into reality.
The rocket, dubbed Starsailor, lifted off on Friday at 5:34 a.m. from an isolated launch site in the Mistissini region of Northern Quebec.
In a livestream of the event, the rocket could be seen as a ball of white light rising rapidly into a clear, early morning sky. Previous close-ups showed the 13-metre-long cylinder attached to its support tower, which was tilted slightly from vertical in order to send the rocket on a long, arcing sub-orbital flight.
About eight minutes later, students said on the livestream that the nose cone of the rocket had separated earlier than expected, around the time that the Starsailor would have experienced maximum dynamic pressure during flight.
Engineering students spent seven years working on the project with lift-off occurring at 5:34 a.m. E.T. from an isolated launch site in the Mistissini region of northern Quebec.Space Concordia/Supplied
“Everyone is still pretty darn happy,” said Hannah Jack Halcro, an alumna and former president of the student club Space Concordia, who provided commentary for the live stream.
Ms. Halcro also said the nose cone apparently survived its brief, high-speed journey. Once recovered, it is designed to provide detailed data on engine performance and other aspects of the flight may inform future launch attempts.
In an email, team member Alice Langlois confirmed that the rocket did not reach an altitude of 100 kilometres, generally considered to mark the height above Earth’s surface where space begins.
However, she said, the rocket cleared its tower and successfully demonstrated stable flight. “We also had an excellent engine ignition and the telemetry systems worked as intended.”
Starsailor marks the first attempted space launch in Canada since 1998 and the first ever in Quebec. It is also the first student-led space launch to receive approval from Transport Canada.
Worldwide, only a handful of student rockets have ever succeeded in reaching space. Starsailor was aiming to become the first to do so using a liquid fuel engine, the same method by which commercial launch companies such as SpaceX regularly loft satellites into orbit.
And while the project’s ultimate goal was not achieved during its maiden attempt, the fact that a student club managed to get so far in a country that long ago surrendered its capacity to independently access space is a paradigm shift.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Charles Kiyanda, an associate professor of engineering at Concordia. “I hope that people are watching this and realizing that it is doable.”
Starsailor marks the first attempted space launch in Canada since 1998 and the first ever in Quebec. It is also the first student-led space launch to receive approval from Transport Canada.Supplied
Among those watching were members of the Cree Nation of Mistissini, whom the student team approached when looking for a suitably remote launch site that was accessible by road.
“It definitely was an interesting opportunity to be a part of something so unique,” said Pamela Macleod, who was the co-ordinator of land management and environment when the community agreed to participate.
Part of the attraction, she said, was to engage the youth in the community with the possibilities of space engineering. The rocket was also given a Cree name, Chikabesh, that appears on the rocket in Cree syllabics.
Collectively, more than 700 Concordia students have been involved in the project, which began in 2018 when some members of Space Concordia decided to enter a U.S.-based contest that offered a purse of US$1-million to the first student team who could launch a rocket into space using liquid fuel.
The contest eventually folded, but the Concordia team decided to keep going with the development of their original rocket design.
“We bit off way more than we could chew but we decided to sit down and chew it anyway,” said Oleg Khalimonov, who has been with the project from the beginning and remained with it through graduation and now while working toward a master’s degree.
Mr. Khalimonov said the biggest challenge he and his teammates faced was learning how to build a functioning rocket engine in Canada, where so little expertise exists to guide them.
Several of their early tests ended in spectacular explosions that sent them back to the drawing board as they gradually worked their way toward a successful design, essentially recreating the discoveries made by aerospace engineers during the 20th century.
A turning point came in 2021 when, after several failures, the team was able to get its engine to burn through a volatile mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen fuel in a controlled and reliable way long enough to power a rocket.
“Theory can only take you so far,” Mr. Khalimonov said ahead of the launch. “If something fails, it will have failed in a way that could only be found via flight, which I think is still a success.”
Worldwide, only a handful of student rockets have ever succeeded at reaching space. Starsailor was aiming to become the first to do so using a liquid fuel engine, the same method by which commercial launch companies such as Space X regularly loft satellites into orbit.Supplied
In recent years, the project has been supported by donations from the Trottier Family Foundation and engineer-philanthropist Gina Cody.
Adam Trumpour, president of Launch Canada, an organization that promotes student involvement in rocketry, said Starsailor’s star turn coincides with a groundswell of interest from university groups across the country who are motivated to get their own hardware into space.
“Increasingly, I think they’re no longer satisfied to be told that, sorry, we don’t do that in Canada,” Mr. Trumpour said.
He added that escalating tensions with the United States over trade and sovereignty have led to “a seismic shift” in the discussion about whether Canada should establish domestic launch capability.
If this becomes a national priority, then students like those behind Friday’s launch are key, Mr. Trumpour said, “because they’re building a level of practical engineering knowledge that is not really common.”