Launch Canada is once again about to kick off the Launch Canada Challenge student rocketry competition for its fifth year.
The event is being held from Aug. 15 to 21, and will be taking place in two locations: at a conference in Timmins at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex, and at a launch site southwest of Timmins on the lands of Mattagami First Nation. Teams across a variety of experience categories will be presenting and demonstrating their launches (and launch-related technology) at the conference, then heading to Mattagami to attempt a successful launch.
Rocketry conference and launch competition
The Launch Canada Challenge brings together student rocketry clubs from high schools, universities and colleges from across Canada. The teams compete in several distinct types of challenges: the actual launch challenge, a technology development challenge, and a payload challenge where “Launch Canada encourages teams to develop and fly an innovative payload as part of their project.”
Teams will present their rockets, technologies, and payloads at the conference prior to the actual launch competition, giving students a chance to demonstrate their chops to their fellow teams, Launch Canada’s expert judges, members of the public, and attendees from space-related companies like MDA Space, Pratt & Whitney, Reaction Dynamics and NordSpace.
Presentations on Saturday include comments from Hubert Fortier and Mike Martin of NordSpace, Mel Holmes of the Canada Rocket Company, Melissa Quinn of MDA Space and Marco Convertini and Adrian Comisso of Pratt & Whitney.
On Sunday, there will be talks from various teams on rocketry, technologies and payloads. McGill will be talking about “challenges and solution to scaling up rocket engine testing,” CU InSpace will be talking about their “Skirt Reefing Recovery System,” and the University of Toronto Aerospace team will be talking about the “aerodynamic control of a supersonic sounding rocket,” among others.
On both days there will also be team booths for attendees to visit, and air-powered “stomp rockets” that members of the public will be able to decorate prior to their launch at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Members of the public can even win Launch Canada “swag” for people who complete activities for all the teams.
Afterward, the teams, judges, and support personnel head out to the launch site on Mattagami FN territory, where the launch teams make their attempts over the next five days, from Aug. 17 to 21.
Weather conditions are always a factor, and can lead to teams needing to reschedule, which is part of why there’s a five-day launch window. Notably a successful launch is a factor in the scoring, but is not necessarily required, and the definition of “successful” can vary depending on the team and their goals.
Members of the public can also watch the launches; more info on what you need to do and how you can get there can be found on Launch Canada’s website. (A waiver is required.) Last year the Mattagami First Nation Fire Department was also on site, to both protect attendees and answer questions.
“Restricted” and advanced launch
The actual launch challenge is split into three distinct classes: two continuing from previous years, and one new for this year. The “Restricted Launch” and “Advanced Launch” classes are continuing ones, though the “Restricted” used to be called “basic launch” in previous years.
The “Restricted Launch” category is restricted to single-stage vehicles with commercial, off-the-shelf rocket motors that don’t exceed 40,960 N of impulse. According to Launch Canada, it’s geared towards new teams and experienced teams that are looking for a “lower stakes environment” suitable for testing new technologies.
The “Advanced Launch” category removes those restrictions, and includes multi-stage rockets and rockets that employ student-researched-and-designed propulsion systems. The category is “geared towards teams with more experience that wish to create more complex rockets,” and tests the team’s ability to perform “rigorous systems engineering” on a “complex aerospace system.”
Last year the winner in the advanced launch category was Polytechnique Montreal, with the University of Waterloo and McGill coming in second and third. For “Basic (now Restricted) Launch,” first place went to the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), with Queen’s University and McMaster coming in second and third.
Junior launch for High School rocketry
New for this year, however, is the “Junior” launch category. Trumpour mentioned this as a possibility to SpaceQ back in 2024, after their successful “rocket-in-a-box” collaboration with Science Timmins and Mattagami First Nation, saying that “if all goes well, we’re looking at trying to expand this.” Two years later, it’s a full category.
This category is restricted to high school or first-year teams, and is earmarked specifically for high school teams. The teams are limited to K-class motors, and are required to follow “special rules to make the challenge suitable and safe for new and inexperienced rocketeers.”
Trumpour told Timmins Today that they had received interest from Canadian high school teams, and that a high school team had reached out to take part and was accepted on a trial basis. Their success encouraged other teams to join as well. Trumpour said that “it became clear [that] there was real demand for this…we got a lot of high school students saying ‘wow, this was really cool, we want to do this too.’”
Technology and payload challenges
As to the other challenges, the technology development challenge is one that’s been present throughout Launch Canada, with teams developing and demonstrating new tech both at the conference and at the launch site. This year’s challenge is broken down into two categories: “Open/Research and Development” and “Fixed/Request for Proposal.” This year’s RFP challenge will be focused on soliciting ideas; the dedicated RFP will come for LCC 2027.
Technology development is a key part of Launch Canada, especially now; the organization was tapped to provide “critical turbopump tech” by the CSA’s Space Technology Development Program. Both undergraduate and graduate students have been involved in the project, alongside “other active participants who now work at Canadian and international rocket companies,” according to Trumpour.
It has, however, been separated from the rest of the competition, with a separate trophy for the winner from the launch competition. Trumpour told SpaceQ last year that trying to judge it as part of the launch competition was an “apples to oranges” problem, so it was separated out, as was the Payload Challenge.
The Payload Challenge is more recent, and has looser guidelines with “no specific constraints on payload envelope or weight”, though teams are “strongly encouraged” to ensure that the vehicle design accounts for the payload and that the payload is appropriate to the rocket’s constraints.
Last year’s winners in the Technology Development Challenge were the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) in first place, with Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa coming in second and third. For the Payload Challenge McMaster took first place, with Polytechnique Montréal and York University at second and third place respectively.
Watching the competition
For those who aren’t able to make it to Timmins and Mattagami First Nation, there are some possibilities for checking out the Launch Canada Challenge.
The team is already posting clips of their preparations for the event on Instagram, and will likely be posting highlights there as well. Recent posts show the team hard at work preparing the site. Their LinkedIn also shows the mission patch for 2026; designed by Mark Kravchenko, it “celebrates the fifth edition of the Launch Canada Challenge” with nods to Mattagami First Nation, the boreal forest of northern Ontario, and the Mattagami river.
To watch the competition live, there will be livestreams of the events on Launch Canada’s YouTube channel. Streams for both conference days and the following five launch days are already scheduled; the first day can be found here.
The livestreams of past conference and launch day footage are also available; the first day of the 2025 conference is available here.