The Launch Canada challenge arrived last month in a spectacular fashion, with the announcement that they will be receiving significant DRDC support from the Canadian federal government under the “Launch the North” program.
But that wasn’t the only striking event that happened during the Challenge, which brings together university and college student rocket teams to Timmins and Mattagami First Nation for a week of launches. Launch Canada also kicked off their first cohort of high school rocket teams, and one of their Advanced Group teams, from Waterloo, achieved a new world record altitude for amateur rocketry.
SpaceQ reached out to Launch Canada founder and president, Adam Trumpour, to find out more about how things went, who got the prizes, and what Launch Canada is looking to do with the money.
Launch Canada’s prize winning teams
At the awards ceremony, everybody from Launch Canada was quick to highlight how they don’t see it as a competition so much as a gathering, pointing to how “competitor” teams were quick to help each other get their rockets launched and enthusiastically cheered each other on. Trumpour emphasized that as well,
Nevertheless, Trumpour did share the winners in each category:
Advanced Launch
- 1st Place: Université de Sherbrooke
- 2nd Place: Carleton University
- 3rd Place: McGill University
Restricted Launch
- 1st Place: University of Ottawa
- 2nd Place: York University (Arbalest)
- 3rd Place: University of Saskatchewan
Junior Launch
- 1st Place: École secondaire catholique L’Essor
- 2nd Place: Bishop Strachan School
- 3rd Place: Collingwood School
Technology Development Challenge
- 1st Place: Polytechnique Montréal
Payload Challenge
- 1st Place: McMaster University
- 2nd Place: York University (Arbalest)
- 3rd Place: Polytechnique Montréal
It may be initially surprising that Waterloo was not part of the list, considering the record altitude achievement. When asked, Trumpour explained that “the competition isn’t just the August event: that’s only the culmination of a year-long cycle that includes multiple deliverables (written reports, progress updates, presentations, reviews, and submission of test data) – just like in industry.”
Strong teams sometimes fail to reach the launch site often due to transportation or financial challenges, and Trumpour believes that it’s important to recognize the work that those teams put in just as much as the ones that do arrive.
Nevertheless, he expressed deep pride in Waterloo’s achievement, saying that “it was amazing being able to host Waterloo’s record-breaking liquid launch this year … the team has done some outstanding work and seeing their progress over several years has been a definite highlight.”
Waterloo, for their part, spoke on some of the challenges they’d faced during the conference, with propulsion lead Thomas Fairhead providing a list of what not to do based on their own experiences and setbacks, but the team ultimately succeeded in reaching the record height of 19,354 metres (63,497 feet) with their Polaris rocket.
Team member Niva Patel told the Waterloo News afterwards that seeing the Polaris launch “was an experience that I cannot put into words,” and that “witnessing Polaris soar into the air, hearing the callout confirming we broke the world record, and watching the parachutes deploy with the entire team cheering was unforgettable.”
Launch Challenge “Biggest yet”
Trumpour expressed pride in the competitors and the event, noting that it was “our biggest yet,” with over 600 participants, and that it “[once] again hosted multiple Canadian firsts and even a world record.”
In addition to Waterloo’s record-breaking launch, Trumpour said that Launch Canada “hosted the first ever flight of an amateur regeneratively cooled rocket engine in Canada (Sherbrooke), the highest altitude amateur hybrid rocket flight in North America (Carleton), and the first relight of a student-built liquid rocket engine (MACH: Toronto Metropolitan University).”
“It really shows how much interest there is in rocketry and launch among Canadian students,” Trumpour said, “we continue to have Canadian students pushing the envelope in every area of rocket development.”
Trumpour sees the new Junior category for high school students as an example of that passion for rocketry. “The intent was to create a category specifically targeted to them and appropriate to their experience and resources,” he said, adding that “we’ve really been impressed with the level of enthusiasm for rocketry.” He’s looking forward to “seeing more people joining university rocket teams already having Launch Canada experience.” He sees the category as a big success, and is “excited to see where this will go after a few years.”
One unexpected boost to the high schoolers’ experience was the appearance of famous Canadian astronaut and former ISS commander Chris Hadfield, who joined Launch Canada on site for the Wednesday launch day. Hadfield announced the winners of the Juniors category, pressed the button on some launches, met many of the students, and even signed teams’ rockets. Trumpour said it was “a true highlight”, especially since “it was my first time sharing the livestream with an astronaut.”
Overcoming challenges
There are still significant challenges facing Launch Canada, though, and Trumpour said that funding from the federal government will be squarely aimed at helping to resolve some of them.
Firstly, Trumpour said that it is looking to establish a permanent launch site. The event “has been growing impressively,” he said, “and you can only make Cape Canaveral so portable.” So a key goal is to find a permanent site where they can “build out some more permanent infrastructure,” which will help Launch Canada “grow and accommodate the kinds of advanced projects we’re seeing.”
In the long term, Trumpour’s aspiration is for the site to become “not just the location of an annual competition, but a true hub for aerospace ground and flight testing that can support the entire industry.”
Another challenge is team transportation. While transportation improved this year and was “generally pretty good,” Trumpour noted there were still real challenges. “Some of our attendees had to contend with cancelled Air Canada flights, delayed shipments of rockets, and blown-out tires on the gravel road to the site,” he said, and travel costs remain “definitely nontrivial for students and volunteers,” especially from more distant parts of Canada.
With the DRDC funding, Launch Canada will allocate resources to help students and volunteers with travel costs and alleviate financial pressures.
“We don’t want to see students missing out on these learning opportunities due to lack of financial means,” Trumpour said, adding that they’ll also be looking into using some of it to help teams with funding issues outside of the travel context.
Trumpour also revealed some of the other plans for the DRDC funding. “We will also be using it to further expand our public outreach to introduce rocketry to more Canadians,” he said, “with a continued focus on Northern and Indigenous communities who too often lack such opportunities.” It will be used for “capital costs for launch and support equipment for the event,” he said, “as well as equipment that can be used to support the teams directly.”
The money will also be used for some of Launch Canada’s technology development projects, potentially including research into a rotating detonation engine (RDE) at the University of Waterloo that will be supporting several graduate students. “We’re taking a very holistic approach to building talent as well as technology for Canada,” Trumpour said.
Sovereign launch and national defence
A big motivator for that Canadian talent appears to be the prospect of sovereign launch. Trumpour highlighted its importance during his comments at the conference, and so SpaceQ asked whether the government’s focus on sovereign launch had affected the teams at the Challenge. Trumpour said that “there was definitely an excitement and an energy this year,” and that it is unquestionably driven by the Government of Canada’s new prioritization of sovereign launch.
“There’s now a real possibility for them to be able to work on launch vehicles here in Canada.”
Many of these graduates will be moving on to established Canadian space companies like MDA Space, but others will be looking into Canadian sovereign launch companies like Nordspace, Reaction Dynamics, and the Canadian Rocket Company. These companies would benefit tremendously from experienced talent, and Trumpour said that a “core mission” of Launch Canada will be “providing that talent with the opportunities it needs to build the required hands-on skills while they’re still in school, and not burning through funds at a startup.”
Finally, the government’s re-prioritization of defence will also likely prove important to these students after their time with Launch Canada. Trumpour noted that everybody understands the importance of “dual-use” technologies, particularly in the space sector, and that “at the end of the day, they’re learning real-world systems engineering skills which are massively transferrable.” Defence-focused companies will definitely be part of their future options.
Trumpour also pointed to drone technology as another “dual use” situation where their skills could be useful to Canada and Canadian defence, even outside of the space sector.