Invest1 publisher2 min readPublished
Canada Rocket Company's London engine test site would cost a third more than the startup has raised
Canada Rocket Company plans to spend C$30 million on a 50-acre rocket engine test site in London, Ontario, against about C$22.5 million raised since November. Its promise that other Canadian launch firms can test there too depends on a larger round CRC has yet to close.
The Investor · Invest desk
Drafted by a language model from the sources cited here and checked against its claim ledger before publication. How we use AISend a correction
What happened
- The site is planned to hold up to three vertical and horizontal stands for engines with more than one meganewton of thrust, next to a 12,000-square-foot office and shop.
- CEO Hugh Kolias said Canadian companies working at this scale have had to test abroad, and named the US, France, Germany and Japan as the options.
- CRC says the facility anchors its plan for a reusable methalox rocket that would carry 12,000 kilograms to low-Earth orbit, pitched as a sovereign alternative to SpaceX's Falcon 9.
- The expansion is expected to create 40 skilled jobs over 18 months, with workforce partnerships planned with Western University and Fanshawe College.
Compiled by The InvestorSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- cost The money CRC has already raised also covers payroll and component work in Toronto, so whoever invests in its next round ends up paying for the stands.
- constraint Every milestone on CRC's roadmap runs through one site, so its own engine campaigns get first claim on the stands and outside users get whatever time is left.
- decision Other Canadian engine developers have to choose between testing abroad now and waiting for a domestic stand run by a would-be rival launcher, expected to be fully operational only by 2028.
The C$30 million budget is a third more than the roughly C$22.5 million Canada Rocket Company has secured since it launched last November [1][8][1]. If every dollar raised so far went into the London site, CRC would still be C$7.5 million short [2]. The same money already pays 34 employees and runs a 7,400-square-foot Toronto shop where the company has started developing components [8]. CRC is also planning a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing plant [10]. The C$7.5 million gap, before any spending on that plant, has to be covered by a larger round the company hopes to close [10][2].
CRC claims the site will be Canada's first large-scale static engine test facility, and it is offering to share it [2][5]. "Building it here means that capability stays in the country, and it's available to others in the ecosystem too," co-founder and CEO Hugh Kolias told BetaKit [5]. He also described how much the company itself needs the stands. "You cannot develop a rocket engine without somewhere to fire it at full power," Kolias said. "Every milestone on our roadmap ... depends on this site" [6]. Those two statements compete for time on a site with up to three stands, and "up to" sets a maximum [3]. Selling stand time to outside users would pay back part of the C$30 million, but BetaKit's report does not include access terms or prices [1].
CRC hopes to start testing some engine components by the end of 2026 and expects the London site to be fully operational by 2028 [10][7]. On Kolias's account, the company cannot fire its own engines at full power in Canada until those stands are built [6].
If the larger round closes in 2026 and is big enough to cover the site, the plant and payroll, CRC can build all three stands [3][10]. In that case Canadian developers would have a domestic option for engines above one meganewton by 2028 [7]. A smaller round points to fewer stands or a later date, with CRC's own engines using whatever stand time exists. The sovereignty pitch helps CRC either way, because after the trade war the federal government began shoring up its defence capabilities, including in space [12].
I think the site gets built later or smaller than described. Its budget is larger than everything CRC has raised, and its scope is written as a maximum [1][3]. That view is wrong if CRC closes a round in 2026 large enough to cover C$30 million on top of payroll and the plant, or names an outside user with booked stand time before the stands are finished [1][10].
What to watch
- Whether CRC closes its larger round in 2026, and whether it is big enough to cover C$30 million for the site on top of payroll and the 500,000-square-foot plant.
- Any outside company booking stand time in London, and the price and priority terms it gets against CRC's own engine campaigns.
- Whether the component tests CRC is targeting for the end of 2026 happen on schedule, and where they are run.