Canada Rocket Company wants to build a sovereign alternative to SpaceX’s Falcon 9

Inside a sparkling new building in northern Etobicoke, on an otherwise well-worn and unassuming industrial street, the newest entrant in Canada’s space race is building the team and the rocket engine it needs to reach the stars.

BetaKit recently toured the 7,400-square-foot Toronto facility that Canada Rocket Company (CRC) moved into a month and a half ago. The modern-looking hub houses both an office area featuring the fanciest water machine this reporter has ever encountered—“a key to recruitment”—and a lab where CRC has already begun developing and testing its technology.

“You can build all the satellites you want, but if you can’t send them to space … why are you even producing them in the first place?”