Canada is moving to stop depending on American rockets. On Thursday, Toronto-based Canada Rocket Company announced it will build the country's first large-scale rocket engine test facility — a $30 million, 50-acre site at London International Airport in Ontario, with up to three vertical and horizontal stands able to test engines producing more than 1 meganewton (225,000 pounds) of thrust.

The facility is named for Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who became the first non-American to fly into deep space on Artemis II and is now a national figure. The company says it intends to begin testing its E-1 engine there in about two years.

The project is the visible edge of a bigger shift. After tariffs, annexation talk and a broader fraying of US relations, Ottawa has begun reassessing the areas where it previously relied on American goods and services — including sovereign access to space. This spring, its Launch the North programme issued first awards of C$8.33 million to three companies, including Canada Rocket Company, to support light-lift rocket work.

Canada Rocket Company decided to skip small rockets altogether. CEO Hugh Kolias said conversations with about 150 engineers, from Starship engineering leadership down to junior staff, convinced the team that a light-lift vehicle would not de-risk a rocket programme — most of the work would be thrown away in any move to something larger. Instead the company is developing the R-2, a medium-lift rocket with nine methane-fuelled engines, landing legs pointing toward eventual reuse, and a payload capacity of up to 12.5 tonnes to low Earth orbit. First launch is targeted for 2032.

The company has about 30 employees — many of them Canadian rocket engineers who left SpaceX, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab to return home — and has raised $22.5 million to date while preparing a Series A round. Kolias said the Canadian government may eventually put as much as half a billion dollars behind a sovereign launch capability, alongside guaranteed launch contracts. The country's satellites have long flown on American rockets; the ambition now is to launch them from home.

Sources