While most commercial space launch activity takes place just south of its border, Canada is tired of looking on the sidelines and wants in on the action: The country’s federal ministry of transportation announced it intends to to support commercial space launches in the near future.
The plan is for Canada to conduct commercial launch activities that begin essentially immediately on a “case by case” basis, using the existing regulatory framework to govern how, where and when those launches take place. That ad-hoc approach is expected to last approximately three years, with the intent that Transport Canada spend that time working with other relevant federal agencies and regulators to create a specific framework for modern space launch activities within the country.
It’s not that Canada isn’t already participating in the space economy: to the contrary, Transport Canada said that commercial aerospace activity contributed more than $22 billion in GDP to the country’s economy in 2020. The commercial launch sector is obviously heating up, however, Canada believes it is geographically and strategically well positioned to capitalize.
Some local startups are already experimenting with the possibilities of launching a small payload from Canada, including SpaceRyde, which uses small balloon-shaped rockets to make the relatively short trip to low-Earth orbit. But opening up commercial activities more broadly could help Canada court existing commercial launch entities, including SpaceX, Rocket Lab and the other companies looking to join their ranks, as an additional North American launch option.
