A growing contingent of homegrown startups is stepping up in Canada after the government in Ottawa recognized the country's untenable position as one of the only G7 nations that cannot send a satellite into orbit without extensive help from beyond its shores.

With deteriorating United States relations escalating the urgency of the situation, the Canadian government has funneled cash into incentivizing the growth of its local space industry. SpaceX's (NASDAQ: SPCX) decision to stop accepting Falcon 9 bookings beyond 2028 has further sweetened the pot.

Canada is pouring cash into a space push

Canada Rocket Company, NordSpace and Reaction Dynamics are three of the standout beneficiaries of the CAD $305 million the Canadian government committed under its federal Launch the North program. Each of the three companies received a first installment of CAD $8.3 million in May 2026.

Beyond funding for startups, infrastructure is also expanding, with $200 million in federal investment going toward a Canada-owned spaceport announced in March.

The stakes extend beyond prestige — satellites underpin communications, weather forecasting, navigation and Earth observation, and Canada has never had a domestic means of launching one — and the results of the new push are already showing up. NordSpace framed the orbital-class engine it unveiled on August 19 as Canada's largest steps yet toward sovereign launch. Down the coast, Maritime Launch ran a successful hypersonic suborbital test from Canso, Nova Scotia, on June 10, according to the Centre for International Governance Innovation, which reported that both Maritime Launch and NordSpace expect to reach orbital flight within roughly a year.

Which G7 nations can't send rockets into space?

Canada is the only G7 nation that still cannot launch rockets into space without outside help, which on most occasions comes from the United States, even though the country has actually reached the Moon.

The gap is as old as the Canadian space program itself. Alouette-1 made Canada just the third country to design and operate its own satellite when it reached orbit in 1962 — aboard an American rocket — and the pattern held through the Canadarm era, when Canadian-built robotics flew on NASA's shuttles and the International Space Station while launch itself stayed in foreign hands.

However, on April 21, 2026, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon introduced the Canadian Space Launch Act, a bill that sets the parameters for rockets to launch and re-enter Canadian airspace. If the plan works, it will lay the building blocks for a commercial launch industry that Canada believes could be worth as much as $40 billion.

Reaching those estimates could be helped by the trickle-down effects of decisions at Elon Musk's SpaceX, which could leave customers competing for rides to orbit amid booming satellite launch demand. Europe's recent experience shows how tight orbital supply can get: after Russia's invasion of Ukraine cut off Soyuz rides just as Ariane 5 was being retired, ESA booked Falcon 9 launches for missions such as the Euclid space telescope in 2023.

Canada Rocket Company co-founder and CEO Hugh Kolias is bracing for a "space super cycle" that could see around 100,000 satellites orbiting Earth by 2030, up from the current 18,000.

Kolias' Toronto-based firm is building its R-2, a reusable medium-lift rocket, to get ahead of SpaceX's 2028 Falcon 9 cutoff date. Available specifications confirm the rocket's seven methane-and-oxygen engines generate enough thrust to carry about 12,500 kilograms.

Canada Rocket Company has raised $22.5 million, mostly from Canadian investors, including the Business Development Bank of Canada. The firm has also brought back nine Canadians from SpaceX, Blue Origin and Europe's ArianeGroup, growing to 25 staff in July from two in January.

The early signals are bullish, but the enormity of the task cannot be overstated. As Kolias mentioned, a medium-lift rocket could routinely take between eight and ten years to develop, with 300 to 500 engineers and technicians working on a budget of at least US$500 million.

Against that backdrop, the near-term markers are concrete: the Canadian Space Launch Act's path through Parliament, further installments under Launch the North, and whether Maritime Launch and NordSpace convert their 2026 test milestones into orbital attempts on the roughly one-year timelines they have flagged.