Even before the Launch the North challenge award, Reaction Dynamics (RDX) had positioned itself as a standard-bearer for the growing Canadian space launch scene. A mainstay in SpaceQ coverage going back to 2018, the company has always promised a sovereign Canadian space launch capability based on a hybrid engine that uses a new solid fuel and a liquid oxidizer.
Most of a decade later, that promise is closer than ever, and their inclusion in the Launch the North challenge means that they may end up delivering on that promise sooner than anyone might have expected.
SpaceQ reached out to Reaction Dynamics to see how things were progressing in the wake of the announcement, and to explore how their approach differed from their competitors.
Reaction Dynamics’ Director of Business, Tech & Strategy, Jesse Mikelberg, provided some thoughts on the company’s recent big move to Longueuil in Quebec, near the Montreal Metropolitan Airport, as well as RDX’s approach to rocketry and to sovereign launch.
It revealed how RDX may be playing a different game than its competitors, and may be aiming for a different role.
RDX’s move to a Quebec innovation zone
The most notable recent shift in the company was its move from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu to Longueuil, adjacent to the Montreal Metropolitan Airport. Mikelberg said it was a “full move,” and that the new facility is “our headquarters and the centre of our day-to-day operations.” He said that they’ll be further expanding the facility, too, “including additional factory-floor capacity and another floor of office space.”
Being located next to a what is becoming a busier metropolitan airport sounds like it might be disruptive for detailed and difficult scientific and engineering work, but Mikelberg said that it hasn’t been a problem. “Manufacturing and integration work at Longueuil is conducted within controlled industrial environments,” he said, noting that their propulsion testing takes place at separate facilities in Joliette, Quebec. He said that being next to the airport “hasn’t presented any material challenge” to their engineering or manufacturing work.
In fact, it’s presented a lot of benefits; some predictable, at least one surprising. Mikelberg said that being part of Longueuil is an “ideal environment for a company developing sovereign Canadian launch capability,” as it “sits at the heart of Quebec’s aerospace innovation zone.” Being in that innovation zone, he said, “places us close to aerospace companies, research institutions, specialized talent, suppliers and government partners.”
Shipping Auroras worldwide
But a less-predictable advantage that he pointed out is in shipping their Aurora launcher. “Aurora is designed to fit inside a standard shipping container,” Mikelberg said, “allowing it to be transported by truck, rail, sea or air.” Part of the reason why they see their location as an advantage is that being located next to an airport “simplifies those logistics.”
When asked for details, Mikelberg said that “Aurora has been designed around a containerized operating concept,” where it can be “transported in a standard shipping container, stored and stockpiled.” He said that this approach is “central to the system’s responsiveness and deployability,” and is key to their vision of the Aurora as a launch solution that focuses on responsive launch operations: ones where you can go from tasking to liftoff on very short notice.
This isn’t a conceptual future capability. Mikelberg said the suborbital test in Australia will feature an Aurora that is shipped “using standard shipping containers,” quite possibly from that same Montreal Metropolitan Airport.
“Stored, transported, and deployed where it’s needed most”
Both the Canada Rocket Company (CRC) and NordSpace have emphasized their moves towards medium-lift, and when asked about medium-lift, Mikelberg just said that “our immediate focus is executing the milestones in front of us, and advancing Canada’s path to sovereign orbital launch.”
While this focus on a smaller launcher may be seen by some as a strategic disadvantage in the competition (both in Launch the North and in the Canadian market), Mikelberg’s “made to fit in a shipping container” comments suggest that their Aurora may end up playing a different role in the market than these other larger launchers.
One of the things that makes the Aurora unique from almost any other launcher is its fuel: patented solid propellant fuel pellets that are engineered to ensure a consistent burn, while also being non-toxic, shelf-stable, and safe for long-term storage without risk of explosion.
(Mikelberg demonstrated the latter quality on Meet the Drapers by taking a lighter to a pellet. The pellet remained unaffected, to the delight of the hosts.)
Coupled with the comparatively straightforward design of RDX’s RE-102 engines, which also makes storage and transport relatively safe, RDX’s goal is to create a responsive launch capacity that can, in theory, be transported and launched from nearly anywhere, inside standard shipping containers.
As Mikelberg put it, the goal is to “build a launch capability that can be stored, transported, and deployed when and where it is needed most.”
A national security alternative?
This focus on transport and storage could make the Aurora (despite its smaller size) a potentially attractive alternative for national security and defence customers.
An Aurora could prove more flexible than standard solid-fuel rockets, while remaining far more resilient and easier to transport than launchers using complex liquid propellants, such as the fully cryogenic methalox or semi-cryogenic keralox systems used by CRC and NordSpace respectively.
The oxidizer that RDX uses is Hydrogen Peroxide, a substance that requires care, but not to the extent of cryogenic transport or storage.
If it works, it could offer customers a significant strategic advantage. Responsive launch may be a bigger focus in the future, especially as the space domain heats up in the defence and national security worlds. Having an orbital launch solution that can be easily, safely, and discreetly transported using normal roads, then stored until needed, could prove decisive when responding to damage or disruption of space-based infrastructure.
For his part, Mikelberg said that their experience with NATO’s DIANA accelerator demonstrated the importance of national security, saying that launch is “increasingly part of the strategic infrastructure required to ensure resilience, reconstitute space capabilities, and support sovereign and allied operations.”
So even if the containerized Aurora can’t carry as large a payload as (say) the Methalox rockets from CRC, they may end up serving different roles for different markets—both providing Canada with sovereign launch capabilities.
Staffing up and prepping for launch
Mikelberg said that the company is “executing against our technical and commercial milestones” now that the move’s done, and focused on two main goals: preparing for the suborbital launch, and hiring more hands to keep moving forward.
He said that “our immediate focus is the Integrated Stage Test (IST),” their next major milestone before the suborbital attempt. The IST “brings the vehicle’s principal systems together in an integrated configuration before flight,” he explained, which will let RDX move on to “final flight preparation, shipment, and launch operations.” The shipment, he said, will use “the same containerized logistics concept around which Aurora was designed.”
Once the suborbital mission is done, he said, their focus will shift to the remaining “qualification, infrastructure and vehicle development milestones” they’ll need to conduct their first orbital launch. The orbital launch is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2028.
In order to get that done, Mikelberg said, they’re also focusing on getting more talent. “We’ve been hiring steadily,” he said, “averaging approximately one to two new employees per week since September 2025,” including roles in propulsion, avionics, manufacturing, structures, government relations, business development, and (unsurprisingly) human resources.
“What is especially encouraging,” Mikelberg said, “is the pull this project has created.” Canadians who left the country to pursue opportunity elsewhere are returning to help build sovereign launch, and they’re bringing in international talent as well. He said that they are attracting talent from “Rocket Lab, ArianeGroup, Orbex and Rocket Factory Augsburg, among others.”
They expect to reach 70 employees by the end of this year, and 100 next year, with more as manufacturing ramps up in the coming years.