GATINEAU, Que. — Reaction Dynamics (RDX) wants to put six tonnes in low Earth orbit by 2031 with Borealis, a medium-lift rocket the Longueuil, Que., company unveiled Tuesday as the SpaceBound industry conference opened. The company also plans to raise $350 million and grow its staff from 68 to more than 350.
Borealis would follow Aurora, the smaller rocket RDX is still aiming to fly to orbit from Canadian soil in the fourth quarter of 2028. RDX announced Borealis on Oct. 8, along with a switch from hybrid to liquid-fuelled engines and the end of a planned suborbital test flight in Australia.
“Aurora is how we get to orbit in 2028. Borealis is how we deliver sovereign access to orbit, at scale, by 2031,” founder and chief executive Bachar Elzein said in the release.
RDX plans to raise $350 million more by 2031
RDX says it has secured about $50 million to date in private investment and government funding, which it calls the most raised by any Canadian launch company. It plans to raise $350 million more in private investment through 2031.
Payload reported that RDX is raising a Series B of more than $70 million to fund Aurora’s first launch and build capacity for eight Auroras a year. Jesse Mikelberg, RDX’s director of business development and strategy, told Payload the company would need more than $200 million after that to move to Borealis.
RDX employs 68 people, up from 55 in May, and plans to have more than 350 by 2031 in engineering, advanced manufacturing and launch operations. It also plans about 375,000 square feet of manufacturing and integration space in Quebec.
The company says it has a commercial pipeline worth more than $US 5 billion, backed by at least 10 agreements and letters of intent with satellite operators and institutional customers. The release says some of those are non-binding and at different stages.
Borealis joins a crowded medium-lift field
NASA counts rockets that carry between 2,000 and 20,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit as medium-lift, so Borealis, at 6,000 kilograms, would be near the bottom of that class.
Aurora is a small launcher built for the 200-kilogram payload, launched within 96 hours of notice, that the Department of National Defence (DND) requires under its Launch the North challenge. DND has also said it plans a later phase for medium-lift rockets carrying up to 4,000 kilograms.
Borealis would carry a little under half of what Rocket Lab’s Neutron, now due to fly for the first time in 2027, is designed to lift, and about a quarter of what SpaceX’s Falcon 9 can carry when its booster is discarded. RDX has not said whether its 6,000-kilogram figure assumes a reusable first stage.
Rocket Payload to low Earth orbit Status Rocket Lab Electron about 300 kg Flying RDX Aurora about 200 kg Orbital attempt targeted for late 2028 RDX Borealis 6,000 kg First launch targeted for 2031 Rocket Lab Neutron up to 13,000 kg First launch delayed to 2027 SpaceX Falcon 9 22,800 kg Flying
Canada Rocket Company and NordSpace have also pitched medium-lift rockets as SpaceX shifts its effort toward Starship. SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk wrote on X in August that once Starship flies reliably several times a week, shifting resources to it “means winding down Falcon.” SpaceX has also reportedly stopped taking rideshare bookings beyond late 2028.
DND awarded RDX $8.3 million in March under the first phase of Launch the North, which is meant to give Canada its own launch capability. Canada Rocket Company and NordSpace are the other two companies in that challenge.
Both rockets will use storable liquid propellants, which can stay in a fuelled rocket at room temperature. Liquid oxygen, by contrast, has to be kept cryogenically cold. The company says storable propellants would allow short-notice launches from northern sites, and it wants eventually to fly Borealis 24 times a year with larger satellites and full constellation batches for commercial, government and allied military customers.
“We founded Reaction Dynamics because we believe Canada should be able to reach orbit on its own terms,” Elzein said.
RE-X hot-fire tests start in November
RE-X, RDX’s orbital-scale liquid engine, is being built near Montreal and is due to start hot-fire testing in November. The company has run 50 tests in its liquid program so far and fired its earlier hybrid engines more than 350 times.
RDX will carry Aurora’s engines, avionics, flight software and manufacturing methods over to Borealis, so the smaller rocket doubles as a test bed for the larger one. Aurora’s first orbital launch is planned from Spaceport Nova Scotia, where RDX has an agreement with Maritime Launch Services for a dedicated pad.