The session’s name was ‘The Exponential Impact of Domestic Space Access on Canada’s Commercial Space Industry’. It was one of the last panel discussions scheduled at the Canadian Space Launch Conference (CSLC), which was held at Ottawa’s Canada Aviation & Space Museum on April 29, 2025. However, this session’s actual conversation underscored a more urgent theme: the critical need for Canada to build and launch its own rockets.
This point was nicely demonstrated by panelist Arad Gharagozli. He is CEO of Galaxia Mission Systems (Galaxia), builder of the MÖBIUS-1 software-defined satellite (SDS). As previously reported by SpaceQ, MÖBIUS-1’s demonstration flight is set for liftoff on the SpaceX Transporter-14 rideshare mission in June 2025.
“At the last minute we got a letter from SpaceX imposing a 25% tariff on our launch, which doesn’t make sense,” said Gharagozli. “SpaceX isn’t importing this spacecraft into the United States, so why would there be a tariff on it? But it’s SpaceX: What are you going to do about it?”
Faced with this unjustified 25% price hike, Galaxia looked around for a launch alternative. But “there are no other options,” Gharagozli said. “It’s not as easy as just picking up the phone and being like, ‘Hey, I want to launch next month’. You’re going to go on a manifest and the best case scenario might be on an 18 month schedule.”
His takeaway from the SpaceX price hike? “I don’t think anyone in this room is really arguing with the fact that we do require sovereign capabilities,” concluded Gharagozli.
SpaceQ reached out to all the other Canadian companies we’re aware of launching on the Transporter-14 mission and none reported being asked to pay a tariff. All but one had their satellite(s) built outside of Canada and so there would be no tariff. Why a tariff didn’t apply to them is unclear. Looking ahead there are many Canadian satellites scheduled or launch over the course of the next two years, most of which will be built in Canada but launched from the United States. Will tariffs apply?
Watch a replay of the panel discussion
Clearly, a Canadian launch industry capable of taking MÖBIUS-1 and other homegrown spacecraft into orbit would be a welcome option for companies such as Galaxia. So too would be a domestic launch industry that offered standardized, proven rockets in volume.
“For most government procurements, especially for things in the defence sector, there is an emphasis on reliability and scalability,” said Mark Robbins, Manager of Innovation with the Department of National Defence. “We’re not buying ones and twos of things that are brand new and super exciting. We’re usually buying thousands of things and the war fighter needs to be sure that they all work the same way — or else we have a bigger problem. So that breeds this culture of we value consistency and repeatability and fitting up to specific requirements more than we value innovation.”
At the same time, Canada’s space industry would benefit from access to launchers that are less harmful to the environment. A case in point: “One that I focus on in my studies is biofuel, which is an area where Canada excels at,” said Kiernan McClelland, Research Associate in the Department of Global Studies at Anáhuac University in Cancun, Mexico. “Canada is the primary user and manufacturer of renewable biofuel in the world. We have several academic institutions that are doing high level credibility research on the impacts of biofuel and its use in space launch activities.”
The bottom line: For a wide range of reasons, the creation of a sovereign launch capability can’t come soon enough for the Canadian space industry — especially for companies at the mercy of unpredictable foreign launch and tariff policies. And after all, a cleaner domestic launch capability wouldn’t just support sovereignty. It could also support Canada’s climate commitments.
