Toronto-based SpaceRyde signed a multiple launch agreement (MLA) with ISILaunch Services for four Canadian commercial launches starting in 2024.
ISILaunch is a subsidiary of a Netherlands-based company, ISISSPACE, which is a small satellite launcher and operator. It has sent 570 satellites to space on board rockets like Electron (Rocket Lab), PSLV (India) and Vega (Arianespace), with major customers including Planet.
Its new ride to space will have a different methodology, however, as the startup SpaceRyde is building a three-stage rocket that would be borne to the stratosphere under a balloon. The system will be tested in a series of flights in early 2023 – an undisclosed biotechnology customer has signed up for those missions. (This is assuming, in part, that SpaceRyde can complete engine testing – more on that below.)
SpaceRyde’s 20-meter-tall “smart rocket,” called Ryder, is novel; SpaceRyde aims to use it to analyze location data. From high in the atmosphere, the rocket would fire its engines, using the data it picked up to find the best path to orbit. The company has said it aims to send a demonstration Moon mission aloft in Q4 2024, using two rockets in LEO. The first rocket would refuel the second for a round-the-moon mission; no customers have been yet announced on that flight.
The launching system does allow SpaceRyde to launch from locations that may not support traditional rocket facilities, assuming launch approval is secured. The company has received $10 million in funding and has about 30 people, according to media reports. They made a public splash in June by showcasing their 25,000-square-foot rocket manufacturing facility in Concord, inviting astronaut and supporter Chris Hadfield to attend the event.
SpaceRyde, however, has been waiting to complete engine testing in Warkworth, a community within the larger municipality of Trent Hills, roughly two hours east of Toronto. Nearly 750 people have signed a petition on Change.org, alleging that the rocket testing is loud and unwanted, startling residents working or doing outdoor activities.
In September, Trent Hills mayor Bob Crate told council he will request a legal opinion on how the land SpaceRyde is using may be leased, according to local news outlet Trent Hills Now; SpaceRyde officials did not comment to SpaceQ ahead of publication, but they have said in the news outlet that engine testing is covered under an accessory use of the land.
ISILaunch is the largest customer SpaceRyde has announced. “The signing of this MLA with an established industry player strongly indicates SpaceRyde’s technological readiness for commercial operations,” SpaceRyde officials said in the Nov. 16 announcement.
“A gap exists for fast and reliable access to custom orbits in space at a competitive price. These four launches are only the beginning,” added SpaceRyde chief revenue officer Negar Feher in the same statement. SpaceRyde has pledged to manage all steps of launch preparation from the payload integration stage, in an effort to keep launching costs low.
ISILaunch officials quoted in the release said benefits of their new SpaceRyde agreement include a low launching price ($250,000 per customer), custom orbits and fairing configurations, and an ability to book launches as late as four weeks before the rocket lifts off.
SpaceRyde is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab in 2019 and also has received $100,000 from Sustainable Development Technology Canada in 2021.