This man wants a tiny Newfoundland town to house Canada's first commercial spaceport

An Ontario-based aerospace startup says it wants to create Canada's first ever commercial spaceport, and believes the Newfoundland community of St. Lawrence is the perfect place to access the final frontier.

Nordspace, launched in 2022 by CEO Rahul Goel, touts itself as building the road to space in Canada. Goel told CBC News that Canada lacks an operational spaceport, unlike other G7 countries, and his company wants to build the first.

After searching from coast to coast, the company has chosen St. Lawrence as its ideal launching point.

"When we visited Newfoundland, we fell in love with the province, the people, the governments and everything else going on there," Goel said in a recent interview. "[We] ended up settling on St. Lawrence because it's perfectly positioned in terms of achieving the right orbital inclinations."

Nordspace approached the town three months ago, which St. Lawrence Mayor Kevin Pittman said came completely out of left field. It also immediately prompted questions and concern from residents, he said.

However, Pittman said the town had a successful meeting with Goel this week. Some questions do remain unanswered, he told CBC — like noise, overall environmental impact and potential effects to the region's fishery.

The town is gathering public input until Monday ahead of a public meeting with Goel in February, as land would need to be rezoned and the municipal plan would need to be changed to allow for aerospace development.

"They know what they're doing, where they going. They really seem to have a handle on what they're doing," Pittman said.

Nordspace plans to build two launch pads in St. Lawrence according to the town— one at Deep Cove and another including a tracking and communications centre along Lighthouse Road.

Goel said $5 million in private investment has been earmarked for an initial infrastructure phase, which involves concrete pads, support infrastructure and hangars. He estimated construction likely wouldn't take more than two years, adding the company has met with the provincial government to explore where collaboration could be possible.

"The great thing about St. Lawrence is that it has a history of all kinds of interesting industrial projects, from mining to energy," Goel said.

"Although our project is a lot lower impact in terms of physical footprints and construction and resource usage, we'll be able to leverage … their expertise in general construction and operations to make this all happen. So we're not concerned at all."

Rockets launched from St. Lawrence wouldn't carry humans, he said, and would instead carry payloads or small satellites into low earth orbit — between 500 and 1,000 kilometres into space.

The rockets are 16 metres long, about eight times smaller than rockets used by SpaceX, and are created using 3D printed metal. Goel said the company is also exploring the usage of sustainable fuel ahead of its first launch later this year and plans to develop commercial business starting in 2027 or 2028.

"There's huge demand for access to space," he said.

"We're moving at a breakneck pace. We're already, like I said, behind the eight ball when it comes to basically dozens of other nations. So there's really no time to lose here."

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