IDEaS launches Launch the North: Accelerating Canada's sovereign access to space contest
To achieve this the contest aims to
Secure Canada’s strategic autonomy in space by reducing reliance on foreign launch providers to
Enhance national defence and security through responsive and resilient space access
Stimulate Canadian innovation and dual-use technology development in the commercial and defence sectors
Position Canada as a global leader in commercial space launch and advanced aerospace technologies
The contest also provides a list of potential payloads that the government is focusing on pursuing through it's Soverign Launch capabilities including;
Space Domain Awareness (SDA)
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR)
Satellite Communications (SATCOM)
Navigation (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing)
Space Control
The development of domestic Sovereignty Launch is obviously very important. I have often ranked it among the top five gaps in our sevurity Infrastructure, and I'm happy to see somw agressive timelines outlined here. 2028 is reasonable for Small-Launch, I would argue sooner by at least a year but that's just me.
However despite the initial Small-Launch focus the competition does outline multiple phases. These phases are broken down into three streams with varying timelines.
Stream 1 – Responsive Light Lift (2025–2028)
A three-year, up to $105 million outcome-based challenge focused on small payloads of at least 200 kg.
Using Contests, IDEaS will incentivize demonstrations of Canadian-built launch systems capable of reaching low Earth orbit (LEO) by 2028.
This stream emphasizes speed, agility, and proof-of-concept — establishing the foundation for Canada’s first sovereign launch.
Stream 2 – Medium Lift Capability (10-year horizon)
A longer-term stream aimed at developing 4000 kg-class launch capacity through industry-led innovation networks.
This stream will strengthen the national industrial base, maturing key technologies and building sustainable capacity over the next decade.
Stream 3 – Rocketry Talent and Workforce Development
This stream is focused on growing Canada’s next generation of launch innovators and early-stage research that advance enabling technologies and hands-on experience.
These activities will build highly qualified personnel (HQP) and foster collaboration across disciplines — ensuring Canada has the expertise to sustain sovereign launch for the long term.
Its emphasized that this challenge is currently focused on Stream 1 of the Space Launch R&D Initiative. The success of this challenge will lay the foundation for potential future iterations, including a Medium Lift challenge, allowing participants to expand and scale their solutions over time.
Proposals for Round one will be accepted until January 9, 2026 at 12:00 pm ET. The maximum total payout per project across all phases will not exceed $100 million. This is broken down as:
2025-26: $25,000,000
2026-27: $40,000,000
2027-28: $40,000,000
This contest is open to:
Canadian universities and educational institutions chartered in Canada
Canadian incorporated for-profit organizations
Canadian incorporated not-for-profit organizations
Canadian provincial, territorial, and municipal government organizations
The Challenge itself
IDEaS lays out the following description for the challenge itself:
Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) is seeking innovative solutions that advance Canada’s sovereign space launch capabilities. Timely, secure, and independent responsive light lift launch capabilities are critical to supporting national security, resilience, and innovation objectives. This would allow Canada to place small satellites and experimental payloads into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on short notice, using International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)-free, mobile, and safe launch systems.
This challenge seeks to accelerate the advancement of Canadian-designed launch vehicles and supporting technologies, enabling the launch of Canadian payloads from Canadian soil with an initial operational capability for light lift by as late as 2028.
Canadian innovators are asked to develop and demonstrate innovative technologies, subsystems, or integrated solutions that can form the foundation of a Canadian light-lift launch capability able to:
Deliver at least 200 kg payloads to LEO (~500 km altitude); and
Conduct a launch within 96 hours of receiving a formal notice.
Solutions must be designed using ITAR-free components and subsystems to maintain export flexibility and strengthen the domestic industrial base.
What Innovators Need to do
Applicants are tasked with providing concepts that advance Canada toward a responsive launch Initial Operational Capability (IOC) by 2028.
Proposals may address one or more of the following focus areas:
Launch vehicle design — propulsion, staging, avionics, and guidance solutions suitable for 200 kg class payloads;
Rapid deployment and launch operations — mobile launch platforms, quick-connect payload interfaces, and automated ground support;
Safety systems — integrated Flight Termination Systems (FTS), range safety, and telemetry;
Propellant storage and handling — Canadian-compliant, environmentally safe, and field-deployable solutions;
Infrastructure and logistics — minimal-footprint, mobile or modular ground systems;
Reuse and scalability concepts — enabling cost reduction and higher launch cadence beyond IOC.
Solutions should clearly articulate a credible and integrated roadmap that achieves flight demonstration and readiness milestones leading to IOC by 2028. To be eligible, proposals submitted under the Responsive Light Lift challenge must focus on technologies or concepts at Technology Readiness Levels 4 to 8.
The IDEaS program seeks solutions that will:
Demonstrate capability to deliver ≥ 200 kg to a 500 km LEO orbit;
Execute a safe, compliant launch within 96 hours of notice;
Be built using non-ITAR or export-permissive components;
Include a scalable roadmap beyond 2028 toward routine responsive launch operations.
Incorporate a robust and tested Flight Termination System;
Demonstrate safe fuel handling and storage in line with Canadian standards; and
Provide a clear path to IOC for light-lift launch by 2028.
Solutions may receive higher consideration if they:
Use green or low-toxicity propellants;
Demonstrate reusable or modular architectures;
Be concealable, mobile, low footprint, and infrastructure-light;
Enable automated or semi-autonomous launch operations; and
Present Canadian supply-chain participation for critical subsystems.
I of course don't include everything that was released in relation to the contest. However, these are the major bits that you need to know if you're interested. The challenge also includes a helpful reference sheet of things to avoid.
Let me repost my speech on Sovereign launch, because I think people need to hear it again in light of this.
I am happy to see mentalities on space and the need for a domestic space industry shifting. Canada has always punched above its weight here. It was Canada that put the first domestic communications satellite into space with Anik-1. In fact, the Anik series would accomplish many firsts, such as being the world's first dual-band communications satellite with Anik-B. Canada was the third country to send a domestic satellite into space with Alouette-I.
We have been a player in space from the start. We have been actively involved in many of humanity’s monumental moments among the stars. Yet, we have allowed ourselves to slip at a time when space is becoming more contested, and space-based assets are becoming more valuable.
Our adversaries, such as Russia and China, now have their own ASAT capabilities—sophisticated systems able to target large portions of our and our allies’ constellations. These capabilities, from ground-based interceptors and laser systems to space-based offensive platforms, will only get better and increase in scale as the years go on.
That’s why having a domestic capability in space is so critical. We already see allies, such as the United States, struggling to keep up with demand for both government and commercial launches. Many others are in similar situations. We do not have the collective launch capability to support each other.
That means Canada—the one G7 country without a domestic launch capability—would be the first to be squeezed out. There wouldn’t be much choice, as allies will also need to deal with increasing demand for space-based assets combined with replacing inevitable losses.
Concepts like Golden Dome and space-based ISR to replace systems like AEW, while we can question their feasibility, show how much hope and demand is being placed on new, complex satellite constellations to take over tasks they traditionally haven’t done.
The role of space is growing, and new concepts are rapidly being thought up and developed at speeds we haven’t seen in decades. This is a trend that everyone is experiencing, and one we need to act fast to stay on top of.
From pen to orbit, Canada needs the ability to design, develop, build, and launch various classes of satellites into orbit across LEO, MEO, and GEO. There is no way around this. There is no debate in my eyes. You either have it, or you risk losing your space-based capabilities in conflict—capabilities vital for the modern battlespace.
It does require those extra supports. It requires setting the foundation for these kinds of extreme-risk industries to form. Our own risk-averse nature as Canadians comes up in a lot of things. It’s a generational issue that won’t easily be fixed by any one person or group, certainly not in a single generation.
That also means we need the proper plan in place to turn Canada into an international partner in the space-launch sector. You need the backing and regulations in place to foster launches from Canada. This industry can’t survive off government contracts alone, nor can it survive by losing small launches.
However, you do need to start somewhere, and this feels like one of those industries where you have to take that risk and struggle—where you have to take that leap simply because of how critically vital it is to our national security. You can’t afford not to have these things available, and no matter the urgency, they take a long time to develop.
This is a great step in the right direction. This is something that will do good. From talking around, the team on this is focused, looking for results, and have created something rare in IDEaS: a clear pathway to follow-up and future contracts.
I have often criticized DRDC and IDEaS for their lack of a proper pipeline for concepts to go from design to the field. Companies, especially upstart SMEs, can't afford to wait a year or two to hear back from competitions, or survive off scraps until the next contest arrives, if it does. If there are no guarantees, no pipelines to contracts, then you essentially have a life support system just trying to keep some sort of start-up industry afloat. You don't have a development pipeline.
So, to have a clear pathway in place to translate this into permanent capabilities, to have proper follow-up, good follow-up in my book, to go beyond Small-Launch is great in my opinion. It might seem like a very basic thing to have, but sadly with IDEaS we don't always get that. Sometimes, often times, you are left with many one-and-done contests.
So kudos to the team on this. They have the initial funding, though we will need to see a lot more if we really want a Medium-Launch capability. We have stepped up our commitment in the European Space Agency, further opening the door to cooperation on launch opportunities and capacity.
You cannot do Medium-Launch alone. You cannot support the industry off of Canadian demand alone. You need to have other customers or it isn't economically viable. This can't survive off government contracts.
So, taking the next steps, getting out into the wider community, and establishing ourselves as not just an International player but a net contributor allows us more opportunity, more say at the table, and encourages our allies to help support our domestic Space Industry and Space Industrial Base.
There is money here. There are many new players you will see pop up, serious players, especially once Medium-Launch is on the table. You will see people step up, and for a brief moment we're going to go through a big honeymoon.
However, there are still gaps, serious gaps. There are gaps in the testing and research facilities needed by SMEs to properly develop their concepts. There is a lack of available suppliers for many of the specialized and complex components that go into launch vehicles. There is a lack of skilled personnel in the workforce, and a glut in University rocketry programs that creates a bottleneck of available talent to spread around.
All of that can be fixed, some easier than others, and a lot of capacity will come from places that you don't expect, like the Oil and Gas Industry and its supply chains. It's going to be a sharp, hard curve to get to the place we need to be to have a true, independent space industry.
However, it isn't impossible, and certainly this sets us on the right place to begin to have these conversations, and to start filling those gaps in industry. Baby steps… there is still much to worry about, however this is something to be excited about. No doubt.