On Tuesday, June 9, Québec Premier François Legault announced a $10 million investment in Reaction Dynamics (RDX) for their hybrid propulsion system, which includes Maya HTT as a partner.
In a speech, Legault framed aerospace and defence as some of the larger opportunities in the province of Quebec, alongside critical minerals and hydro. But sovereignty is critical, he said in French, as the US government can no longer be relied upon for defence due to policy shifts by the Trump administration.
The Canadian federal government also announced yesterday that it would spend 2% of its next fiscal year’s budget on NATO in line with expectations from the partnership, rather than in the 2030s. Nevertheless, Legault emphasized that sovereign launch will be beneficial for aerospace opportunities (particularly in the aerospace-heavy region of Montreal).
SpaceQ spoke with Bachar Elzein, CEO and CTO of RDX, Wednesday (June 10) for more context on the announcement. Elzein also gave a speech yesterday at the announcement, but the interview below was exclusive.
SpaceQ: One of the things I noticed from the premier’s speech, was he was putting aerospace in the same category as things, such as critical minerals. He was saying this is crucial to the future of Quebec, as well as Canada.
Elzein: Canada is a manufacturing superpower. Maybe it’s a big word to say, but aerospace manufacturing in Quebec is a very, very, very big economic driver. We have companies like Bombardier, Airbus, Boeing. We have Bell Helicopter. We have Pratt & Whitney Aerospace in Quebec. They hire anywhere between 40,000 to 45,000 people. It’s not surprising at all because critical minerals are important for the world, but for us, our major manufacturing export as a province is not automotive, it’s aerospace.
SpaceQ: How long have you known about this announcement?
Elzein: We submitted the proposal on Nov. 10, and got the approval for funding in the last two weeks of February. When the [federal] elections were announced in April, we couldn’t really make announcements because of that. So that pushed us a month and a half.
We’ve been around for eight years, so we’re used to the timetable. We wanted to make a strong announcement. It was important for us that this support is highlighted, for the aerospace and defence sector as a whole. So, even if that meant we needed to spend a bit more time to plan it and get everything ready and and all the stars aligned. It was really, really worth it.
SpaceQ: What will the money be used for?
Elzein: The money will be used for the development of the rocket engine that will power our orbital launch vehicle. So, we did work on that rocket engine. We completed the proof of concept under Canadian Space Agency funding, and we got to the point where we can test it for about 15 seconds. So, basically, the deliverable on that grant with the Canadian Space Agency was getting to the point where we showed that this smaller engine can function at scale with the right level of performance, and with the right level. That was achieved last year in April.
The goal of the funding that we got [yesterday] from the government of Quebec is to take that motor and push it through development and final qualification. So, in summary, to go from what we had to something that can fire for 90 seconds, and that can propel orbital flight.
SpaceQ: Will you also be doing hiring?
Elzein: We have increased the size of the team. Even though we couldn’t talk about the grant [at first], we did start hiring as soon as we learned the funding was awarded. So we have increased the size of the team by about 25%. So, we’re now a team of 55, and we’re looking to hire five to seven people in the next few weeks. Mostly engineers, maybe one or two administrative staff.
SpaceQ: How does this news relate to last week’s announcement with Galaxia?
Elzein: The satellites they will be launching will be propelled by a rocket propelled by the motors we are developing — and qualifying under the grant, the funding we got yesterday. So very simply, we need those motors to be able to build that rocket that will launch the satellites.
SpaceQ: Now I know that you can’t probably reveal everything that’s going on, but do you mind charting a pathway for the next year or so?
Elzein: We’re aiming to have a demonstration flight of Aurora-1. It is a suborbital launch vehicle. We are using this vehicle for hypersonic testing and defence-related applications. I will share more details in the next few weeks, but we do have a few interesting announcements on that aspect specifically. So, the suborbital launch is supposed to happen from Australia at the end of December.
We have another important milestone in the next year and a half, which is a working prototype of our thruster. We did receive funding and a contract that we’re working out; it’s a contribution from the Canadian Space Agency. This mission is a demonstration mission where three Canadian companies got selected to build a satellite, and each of these companies will validate in space their technologies. This mission is supposed to fly to orbit on the SpaceX rocket in about a year and a half, in late 2026 early 2027.
This is why we’re hiring so much, because we have four or three major projects. With the funding we announced yesterday, which is for the orbital rocket: as soon as we are successful with the demonstration flight, we hope that we will be able to scale further and focus more on the orbital rocket proper: Aurora-8. It’s eight, because you have eight motors on the first stage. Aurora 1, you have a single motor on the first stage.
SpaceQ: There have been a lot of discussions lately about trying to be doing more things the Canadian way, and then obviously rockets are a part of that push. The orbital rocket is expected to launch from Canadian soil, eventually. What do you see this symbolizing?
Elzein: Our friends at Galaxia said it in very elegant words: Canadian-built satellites launching on Canadian-built rockets. I think it’s important. It’s important for our sovereignty. It’s important for our economic growth. The number of satellites being launched are growing, and the reason there’s so much demand is because data is the new oil. There’s so much data you can get out of space that you cannot necessarily get from other means, so there is a need to have access to space. There’s a need to build more satellites to get more sensing. Not having access to orbit through our own sovereign means, means we can be left behind and means we are not benefiting from that growth.
