College students at Concordia College in Montreal have pulled off what they’re calling the primary tried area launch in Canada this century.
They launched a rocket from a distant web site in northern Quebec early Friday morning, , the fruits of a venture seven years within the making.
“We’re trying to prove that students can also do hard things,” stated Simon Randy, president of scholar group House Concordia. “It’s not just companies or large government organizations. It’s really people who have the drive and the grit to work on these large projects.”
Starsailor, a 13-metre liquid-fuel rocket, took off simply after 5:30 a.m., although the launch didn’t go precisely as deliberate. Randy stated the rocket break up into items shortly after taking off and didn’t attain area. The purpose had been to launch the rocket into area and have it fall again to Earth with a parachute, the place the scholars might recuperate it.
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Nonetheless, Randy referred to as the venture a hit. “We cleared the launch tower. We had stable flight, our telemetry worked normally,” he stated. “And so for us, we’ve learned a huge amount with this mission.”
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Randy stated the mission was the primary tried area launch from Canadian soil in additional than 25 years, and the Starsailor is the biggest student-built rocket ever to fly.
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He stated the expertise was a chance to “show the world that space can be exciting still, even in a country where we’re maybe not focused on it.”
He believes Canada ought to be extra inquisitive about having its personal rocket launch functionality.
“In a world where there may be more and more tensions between countries, you would probably want to be able to be independent as much as possible in as large a variety of technology as possible,” he stated.
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The venture was born in 2018 as a part of a U.S.-based competitors that provided US$1 million for a student-led college crew that launched a liquid-fuel rocket into area. The problem was derailed in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, however House Concordia persevered.
Randy, who selected to attend Concordia three years in the past particularly to affix the rocketry membership, stated he’s spent extra time on the Starsailor than he has at school. “It’s like your entire existence is devoted to this project,” he stated.
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The crew is now hoping to retrieve a few of the particles from the rocket earlier than heading again to Montreal.
The launch occurred about 250 kilometres north of the Cree neighborhood of Mistissini.
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Randy stated crew members did outreach with native youth to get them enthusiastic about area. Some neighborhood members additionally visited the launch web site, he stated.
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The college says greater than 700 Concordia college students have contributed to the Starsailor program because it started seven years in the past.
Now that it’s throughout, Randy stated, the scholars are a bit dazed, and are attempting to work out what they’re going to do subsequent.
“It’s like every day you come … the rocket is there. It’s kind of like a person in the room. There’s always someone working on it,” he stated. “And now it’s gone.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Aug. 15, 2025.
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