As Canada embarks on a path of sovereign launch through the Department of National Defence (DND) ‘Launch the North‘ IDEaS Challenge, there is one less entrant with a provisional renewable 10 day injunction granted to Concordia University against a former employee and co-founder of Polaris Aerospace.
With a deadline of Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. ET to submit proposals for the Challenge, the Superior Court of Québec issued an injunction on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, hours before the deadline after a hearing the day before and with an application submitted to the Court on Jan. 6, 2026.
The case revolves around Oleg Khalimonov, a former student at Concordia who became the Project Lead of Space Concordia’s Rocketry Division Starsailor program. Concordia alleges that Khalimonov and Polaris Aerospace “unlawfully used Concordia’s intellectual property and confidential information related to the Starsailor project.” The judge in the case is the Honourable Luc Morin, J.S.C..
The (very short) history
While a student at Concordia Khalimonov participated in Space Concordia’s Rocketry Division where he eventually became Chief Rocket Designer. After graduating and with the Starsailor program making progress towards a suborbital launch, Khalimonov was hired by the university to lead the project. This past August the Starsailor rocket launched but failed shortly afterwards.
While still a student at Concordia Khalimonov and the other co-founder of Polaris Aerospace, Neil Woodcock, incorporated the company as a federal corporation on Aug. 1, 2022. The company was a consultancy on matters related to rocket technology and policy. The company in January of 2025 issued a widely read white paper titled The Need For Canadian Sovereign Space Launch which we covered.
According to the judgement issued by the court, Concordia was never officially made aware that he had founded and was a director, officer, and shareholder of Polaris.
Fast forward to this past fall and DND’s issuing the Launch the North Challenge. At some point after the release of the Challenge, Polaris Aerospace decided to submit a proposal which they did on Dec. 29, 2025. The proposal did not include Concordia.
In an affidavit by Khalimonov provided to SpaceQ from the legal representatives of Khalimonov and Polaris Aerospace it states that Khalimonov wrote to Dean Mourad Debbabi “On or about November 28 of 2025, the day after the Launch the North grant was published, I wrote to Dean Mourad Debbabi to discuss this grant…”
Khalimonov wanted a meeting as soon as possible but it didn’t occur until Dec. 8, 2025. At that meeting Khalimonov met with Debbabi and informed him of Launch the North Challenge. During this meeting Khalimonov told Debbabi that “Polaris intended to bid and wanted a joint-bid with Concordia.”
This was followed by more discussions and another in-person meeting on Dec. 16, 2025. Concordia viewed Khalimonov’s involvement in Polaris as a conflict of interest. On Dec. 18, 2025 Khalimonov resigned from his position at Concordia saying in the affidavit the “difference of opinion” on the conflict of interest led to his resignation. Polaris then submited a proposal for the Challenge without Concordia.
According to the Court injunction sometime in December 2025 Concordia found out that Polaris was looking for “potential donors and corporate partners” and that it “was representing in the market that it had acquired Space Concordia’s intellectual property. Polaris further suggested that it was the only team in Canada to have successfully built and flown a large liquid-fuel rocket engine, expressly referencing the Starsailor project.”
The judgment
The provisional judgement sought by Concordia against Khalimonov and Polaris includes;
- Cease using any proprietary or confidential information belonging to the University.
- Withdraw the Polaris Proposal submitted in the context of the Launch The North initiative.
- Remit any documentation in their possession relating to Space Concordia and/or the Starsailor project.
Section 31 of the judgement reads:
“As a first step, since some of the conclusions sought are mandatory in nature, Concordia must establish a strong prima facie case in support of the injunctive relief sought. This requires demonstrating that Polaris and Mr. Khalimonov are using, benefiting from, or relying upon intellectual property and confidential information proprietary to the University in the context of the Polaris Proposal.”
And is followed in section 32 that “the Court is satisfied that Concordia has met this burden.”
With that a provisional renewable 10 day injunction was imposed and the case will be heard at a later date.
The surprise
In reading through the affidavits and the Court injunction there is one added surprise. While Concordia forced Polaris to withdraw its proposal for the Challenge, Concordia submitted one of their own.
So during the course of the dispute in December Concordia made the decision to pursue it’s own proposal.
The dispute
The dispute surrounds two issues, Concordia’s intellectual property and Khalimonov’s responsibility as an employee including Concordia’s confidential information.
The legal issues addressed in the injunction included:
- Whether Concordia University has a strong prima facie case for the issuance of a provisional injunction.
- Whether the defendants’ actions caused irreparable harm to Concordia.
- Whether the balance of inconvenience favors granting the injunction.
- Whether the urgency of the situation justifies the issuance of the injunction.
In each instance the Court ruled in Concordia’s favour.
The most serious issue was whether Concordia had a strong prima facie case. The Court found that Concordia had a strong appearance of right to the intellectual property developed under the Starsailor project. The evidence demonstrated that the former employee had access to Concordia’s confidential information and breached his employment agreement by using this information to benefit Polaris. The Polaris proposal explicitly referenced lessons and technology derived from the Starsailor project, supporting Concordia’s claims.
As for Khalimonov and Polaris, their argument in part is that Starsailor intellectual property (IP) was not needed for their proposal as it is a fundamentally different type of rocket, suborbital versus orbital, and limited in capability. As well, the IP for Starsailor was substantially complete before he was hired by Concordia.
They argued that Khalimonov never hid his is involvement in Polaris and were pubic about it, and that Dean Debbabi should have been aware having “liked” a post on LinkedIn by Khalimonov which mentioned Polaris. They also asserted that Starsailor used publicly available sources, that many, though not all, Starsailor design documentation was made public and that to Khalimonov’s knowledge, “between March 8, 2023 and December 18, 2025, there has been no agreement between SC and Concordia governing their ownership of intellectual property.”
An important point presented by Khalimonov and Polaris is they “did not use any Starsailor documentation to prepare this bid as the technology required to meet the Launch the North grant criteria is fundamentally different.” As well, Khalimonov notes that “Starsailor is an unguided single stage suborbital rocket whereas Launch the North will require an advanced guided orbital two stage rocket.”
Khalimonov also points out that “to conduct the grant application, Polaris did not need to craft designs of this new technology but only had to describe its architecture for the purposes of the contest.”
An affidavit was also submitted Dominic Ng Kuet Leong on behalf of Khalimonov. Leong was an Engineer in Residence of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering at Concordia University. He retired in May 2023.
It in part it contains the following points:
- Oleg Khalimonov delayed his undergraduate studies for several years and financed the project personally to keep the project going through many difficult times, notably when it was almost cancelled in 2021.
- The Starsailor project’s design and development was substantially completed by 2023, during which Oleg Khalimonov was an undergraduate student. (This being prior to when Khalimonov became an employee of the university)
- While impressive from a student standpoint, Starsailor’s rocket is not “professional grade” and is not something that can be mass produced for sale. It is a prototype with many lessons learned, but not designed for a commercial venture.
- Through my previous role and my continued relationships with current and ex-Concordia staff, I understand Concordia’s engineering manufacturing and testing capabilities.
- Concordia does not have the capabilities for producing a product line of much more complex orbital rockets, as is required by the grant in under 3 years.
- Concordia does not have the required trained personnel, staff, equipment, or facilities to undertake a serious bid in the Launch the North contest.
The result
The result of this dispute are many.
Polaris is out of the competition and Khalimonov doesn’t have his Concordia job anymore. By missing out on the first round of the Challenge, Polaris is effectively shutout of the complete program, ending their dream.
Concordia may have won an injunction but could end up losing out as well.
How will the students view this development? The Space Concordia’s Rocketry Division students must be scratching their heads over what just happened. One sentiment we heard was fear, fear that the university will come after them if they create a startup after leaving school. That seems farfetched, after all universities encourage students to create startups. This case is also complicated in that Khalimonov was a student then an employee.
And now that Concordia submitted a proposal who will work on the project if they are selected. Presumably students. But while Canadian universities are eligible for the Challenge, it seems odd that based on the scope of the Challenge, that a university can meet the challenge. After all, the Challenge is made up of streams, and the applicants made proposals for Stream 1 which is three years in length. But there is a Stream 2 which is meant to follow and builds on Stream 1. Stream 2 has a “10 year horizon” and includes the goal of developing a medium lift capability. With that context the Challenge appears more suitable for an existing company or startup, not a university.