The countdown clock at NordSpace's Atlantic Spaceport Complex ticks toward zero, marking a new era in Canadian spaceflight.
For Rahul Goel, the moment represents the culmination of a business strategy that began more than a decade ago in a Schulich School of Business classroom and now stands to reshape Canada's relationship with space.
Rahul Goel
Goel's Taiga sub-orbital rocket is scheduled to lift off sometime this fall from Newfoundland and Labrador, powered by a 3D-printed Hadfield engine designed and built entirely in Canada. The launch marks the country's first fully commercial rocket mission from Canadian soil, a milestone with implications far beyond aerospace circles.
The 32-year-old CEO has spent three years building NordSpace around a clear thesis: too much economic value and too many jobs leave Canada for space services that could be delivered domestically. His solution combines the entrepreneurial framework honed at Schulich with aerospace engineering expertise from the University of Toronto.
"When I was at Schulich, it gave me my first exposure to the world of entrepreneurship," Goel says. "It added structure around this chaotic concept in my head where I've always been an engineer but also really excited about getting products in people's hands."
That structure proved crucial when Goel recognized that building Canadian space capabilities required more than technical knowledge - it demanded an understanding of funding, regulations and market dynamics that traditional aerospace companies often overlook.
Goel's approach bypassed conventional venture capital entirely. Instead, he built PheedLoop, a profitable conference management software company, then used those revenues to bootstrap NordSpace's development.
The strategy allowed him to maintain control while developing liquid-fuelled rocket engines with precision manufacturing techniques never before attempted by a private Canadian company.
The business model draws on hard-earned lessons about Canadian sovereignty in critical technologies. When skeptics question the value of space investment given domestic challenges, Goel counters that failing to nurture space capacity essentially exports prosperity - since the sector underpins so many aspects of modern economic life.
In 2025, geopolitical tensions have highlighted vulnerabilities in space-dependent systems such as GPS navigation and satellite communications. NordSpace positions itself as an "end-to-end space missions company," developing satellites, launch sites, rockets and infrastructure to serve Canadian government and commercial needs without foreign dependencies.
The upcoming sub-orbital mission will serve as proof-of-concept for orbital-class vehicles that could launch Canadian satellites on Canadian rockets from Canadian soil. "Being able to now scale that technology and build it in much larger, orbital-scale vehicles will be a massive benefit not just to Canada but to NordSpace," Goel says.
The timing aligns with renewed federal focus on space policy. Ottawa's 2019 Space Strategy committed $2 billion over 24 years to space initiatives, while the Canadian Space Agency has emphasized domestic launch capabilities as a national priority. NordSpace's commercial model offers an alternative to traditional government-led aerospace development.
For Goel, the technical achievements - in-house rocket engines, custom-built test facilities, precision manufacturing - matter less than demonstrating a viable business case.
"There wasn't one particular moment, but certainly there have been memorable ones," he reflects, describing successful engine tests. His most significant victories, however, involved recruiting aerospace talent capable of executing specialized engineering challenges.
When Goel addresses Schulich students at the Ernest C. Mercier Lecture in Entrepreneurial Science on Oct. 1, his message will focus on entrepreneurial fundamentals rather than just rocket science.
"It's really important to pick an area that you care about, because being an entrepreneur is extremely challenging. Your motive cannot be that I want to become a rich, successful entrepreneur," he says. "You have to care about the problem you are trying to solve."
