Ushering in a new generation of entrepreneurs, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has provided companies like Reaction Dynamics, who are developing a new hybrid rocket engine, non-repayable contributions in its latest technologies funding round.
The funding announcements in the past month by the CSA has amounted to $13.5 million from their Space Technology Development Program. Over the course of the next few weeks we’ll look at some of the companies that received contributions and the technology being funded. Today we focus on Reaction Dynamics.
Building Canada’s first orbital launch vehicle
Let’s start with Reaction Dynamics goal. They want to be the first Canadian company to build an orbital launch vehicle, a rocket, to launch small satellite payloads to start.
That’s a pretty lofty goal. Yes, pun intended.
Sure, Winnipeg based Magellan Aerospace has been building Black Brant suborbital vehicles for over 50 years. But, to build an orbital launch vehicle, well, that’s a technology leap Magellan isn’t interested in pursuing.
Meeting the founders
I first was made aware of Reaction Dynamics in March of 2017. That was about a year after the company was created. Neil Woodcock, now the Chief Operating Officer (COO), sent me an email asking some questions about launch sites in Canada. That eventually led to a meeting that summer at small coffee shop in downtown Montreal where I met Bachar Elzein (CEO/CTO) for the first time, along with Woodcock.
We talked, and I became more familiar with what their goals were. At the time, and while I’m excited anytime someone says they want to build orbital launch capability in Canada, I reserved judgement as to whether they could accomplish their goals.
I’ve met with them several times since then, including visiting their office in Saint-Laurent on the Island of Montreal. That small crammed space was where they were located until very recently. They’ve now relocated to a more spacious locale in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, about 30 minutes south-east of Montreal.
This location serves the purpose of providing them a larger space, at a more reasonable cost than being on the Island of Montreal, and importantly, closer to their rocket engine test site in Thetford Mines.
After the CSA publicly announced the new funding for Reaction Dynamics, I contacted the company to discuss the contributions and to get an update on the hybrid rocket engine they’re developing.
Two CSA contribution awards for a rocket engine
Reaction Dynamics received two contributions from the CSA. The first was $1 million for the “development of a full-scale rocket engine demonstrator for an orbital launch vehicle.” The second for $500,000 is for an “integrated high-efficiency catalytic ignition system for rocket engines.”
These two contributions follow another STDP award ($474k) they received last year for the “development of guidance, navigation, and control technologies for a hybrid engine small satellite launch vehicle.”
The three awards Reaction Dynamics have received from the CSA totals just under $2 million. All the work centres around the hybrid engine they’ve been working on since 2016.
While the company is focused on their engine, they aren’t neglecting the launch vehicle structure and all the other aspects of manufacturing a rocket. Not surprisingly, in a highly competitive field, they just don’t talk too much about the details of their technologies or business plan.
However, I can tell you that the key to their future success lies in the hybrid engine technology they are developing, and primarily the fuel.
The company states that because of its proprietary technology they “can offer dedicated launch to orbit for small satellites at prices 2 to 4 times lower than the competition.” Any edge they can get is important. Of course, they still have to prove that it will work.
The CSA has been convinced enough with their technology proposals to provide them nearly $2 million these past two years. They also have investors onboard, and although they haven’t announced a Series A yet, they have secured funding for the Series A, though they won’t say how much publicly. .
I asked Woodcock some questions by WhatsApp about the latest CSA contributions including what it felt like in getting these contracts and having the CSA believe in them. (I should note the answers I received came from the company, though through Woodcock.)
“We are proud, grateful, and ecstatic. We worked hard on the applications for these grants and it is great to know that our proposals have been selected in this very competitive process. Most of the companies that secured a 6.1 contribution are well established and securing this grant as an SME is amazing. But more than that, this has been a huge morale boost for our company. Developing launch vehicles is difficult and receiving these contributions proves to us that our hard work is paying off.”
I was also interested in the timeline to get “a full-scale rocket engine demonstrator” built. The press release the company issued said the work would be completed in 18 months and that it was “working towards commercial spaceflight by 2022.” That seemed quite an aggressive schedule to me.
The company responded saying “the full-scale demonstrator has already been in work for several months now. Regardless whether we received the STDP grant, this is an essential step in our technical development, and we have been working on it as of last year’s summer. Right now, the project is expected to last 18 months, but keep in mind those proposals were submitted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on this, and the fact that we continue to work on multiple other necessary aspects such as structures, avionics, and launch site integration in parallel, we expect that we will be able to achieve this goal of launching in 2022, albeit, a few months behind because of the pandemic.”
I was also curious as to whether they needed additional funding to able to do a demonstration launch. The company said “additional funding will be required, and we are open to receive investment from Canadian investors, or any other investor that qualify under Canadian laws. We have already secured funds for our Series A, and we have more in the pipeline. The good news is that receiving these funds from the CSA will give us additional momentum and build confidence in us among our existing and potential investors. The total amount required will be substantially less than what our competitors had to raise, due to the streamlined nature of our propulsion system, it’s safety features, and the fact that we have been building our testing infrastructure for the past three years.”
The company is still small with only eight full time employees and four interns. That doesn’t seem enough for the current needs. The company told me they “are planning on posting positions in propulsion development next week, followed by structures and operations. We expect that both these grants will create additional positions. We currently have a team of a dozen engineers including interns. Factoring in the funds from our Series A, as well as those two contributions, we expect to double our workforce by the end of the year, with some intensive hiring by the end of summer.”
I’m still reserving judgement on whether they’ll succeed. It’s not easy building a rocket engine and orbital launch vehicle from scratch. It’s never been done in Canada. But with this recent funding, and the momentum the company has, I’m more optimistic. That, and I’ve seen video of a small prototype engine in action.
Oh, and I have to say it’s great that it’s great that the company will now be able to hire more Canadian talent, many of whom will be recent university graduates who won’t have to leave the country to work on rocket development.