saharnaz safari spaceryde

"No, you need it now. "

That's part of the pitch made by Safari at the opening of what's being billed as Canada's first rocket factory. As part of a husband-wife team, Safari and Sohrab Haghighat spoke to CBC News at the headquarters of their company SpaceRyde just north of Toronto in Vaughan, Ont., alongside the first Canadian astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield.

Their goal: to make history as the first orbital rocket to launch from a balloon — meaning lower cost and on-demand access to space. Think a private Uber-like service for cargo "from the Earth to the Moon and anywhere in between," they say.

Safari and Haghighat envision getting cargo to the edge of space by balloon, then releasing it, lighting a rocket and using the power of miniature computers to control where it goes in space.

An 'elegant idea,' says Hadfield

At a price-tag of $250,000 per trip, it's a fraction of the cost of what's currently on offer for a company or entity looking to send satellites into space or get cargo to the moon, Safari says. The competition, Elon Musk's SpaceX, charges over $1.1 million by comparison, she says.

It's an "elegant idea," says Hadfield, who says getting to space now has been accomplished through the "brute power" of burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

"It's a physics problem," he said, speaking at Tuesday's news conference. "In order to get into orbit, you have to be going eight kilometres a second. Any slower, you fall into the air; any faster, you go out to a higher orbit."

"But there's too much friction," he said. "So you have to get above the air and then you have get going fast enough to stay up there."

Applications here on Earth

That's where the balloons come in.

But the technology isn't just handy for space travellers who might have forgotten something important back on Earth, says Hadfield. It's also got the potential to make it easier to send satellites into low orbit to help send back valuable information about the health and temperature of oceans and the planet as a whole, he says.

Jason Wood, executive director of space exploration and space industry policy at the Canadian Space Agency, imagines other uses too.

"Think about how that could be helpful in remote or northern communities here in Canada to provide sustainable food sources or another example is health care, in terms of remote medicine."

Wood says SpaceRyde is part of a larger shift towards more and more commercial actors providing access to space. The industry, by some estimates, is expected to grow to a trillion dollars per year by 2040, he says.

As for Safari and Haghighat, the two met in Waterloo, Ont. during graduate school.

"That's where we got to know each other and fell in love and eventually got married," he told CBC News.

The pair, married for almost 14 years, are planning their first launch in 2023.

The year after that, their sights are set on the moon.

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SpaceRyde wants to make access to space more available and more affordable

Life can be tough for a small satellite operator – it may be relatively cheap and easy to build small sats (or CubeSats, as they’re sometimes called), but arranging transportation for those satellites to get to orbit is still a big challenge. That’s why SpaceRyde is pursuing a novel way of launching light payloads, that could help small sat companies skip the line, and save some cash in the process.

SpaceRyde’s co-founders, wife and husband team Saharnaz Safari and Sohrab Haghighat, saw the opportunity to address this growing customer base by making launches easier by reducing the impact of one of the biggest complicating factors of getting stuff into space: Earth’s atmosphere.

In an interview, Safari explained that SpaceRyde’s technology works by making it possible to use a relatively tiny rocket rather than a huge one by attaching it to a stratospheric balloon and launching from much closer to orbit. Because of the size of the rocket and the lift limitations of the balloons, SpaceRyde ends up carrying much smaller payloads than say, SpaceX or Rocket Lab, but on the upside, clients don’t have to share rides like they do with the big rocket providers.

“Just getting a ride to orbit for these small satellite, even if they have the money, or they want to pay as much as they’re getting charged right now, on big rockets, is a big problem,” Safari said. “Because they have to wait until a mission with their parameters, to the orbit they want, the inclination they want, all that becomes available and then if there’s space, they can, you know, hitch a ride. So it’s more or less like a bus system.”

No one loves waiting for the bus, least of all the emerging crop of space startups hoping to build sustainable businesses. Many of these young companies, like fellow Canadian startup Wyvern , are looking to launch and operate small sats as the backbone of their go-to-market plan. Trouble is, they’re at the whim of whatever primary client current launch providers are serving, with launch condition requirements for the largest, most expensive satellites on board dictating when, where and if launches will happen for the tag-along smaller customers.

SpaceRyde’s stratospheric balloon-based rocket launch platform concept.

“What we’re building is, instead of this bus system, where it’s a set schedule, and it can get delayed,” Safari explained. “We want to give them the taxi or Uber service to space, where they buy an entire rocket and we provide the payload capacity that smaller satellite companies typically use in one launch, and so they can basically buy the entire rocket, and they can put a bunch of their satellites, depending on how big their satellites are, and then they just tell us where they want us to drop it for them.”

SpaceRyde is early in its own journey, having been founded less than a year ago. But Haghighat, the company’s CEO in addition to being Safari’s husband and co-founder, has a PhD in Aerospace, Aeronatical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Toronto and was an early employee of success story Cruise Automation. Safari brings business and sales expertise, as well as a Master’s degree in Bioanalytical Chemistry from the University of Waterloo. But more important than either of their credentials, they’ve already demonstrated a sub-scale prototype of their system in action.

Earlier this year, SpaceRyde launched a stratospheric balloon carrying a scaled down version of their launch platform and rocket in Northern Ontario, Canada. The test wasn’t a complete success – a modification to the off-the-shelf rocket engine they used didn’t work exactly as expected – but it did demonstrate that their in-flight launch platform orientation tech worked as intended, and Safari says the malfunction that did occur is relatively easy to fix.

Next up for SpaceRyde is to work towards a full-scale demonstration of their platform, which Safari says should happen sometime next year. The company is hiring to grow its small team and accelerate its pace of development, and Safari says they’re excited specifically about the potential SpaceRyde has to bring back domestic launch capabilities to Canada – the country hasn’t had a rocket launch in 21 years.

For the private space economy, the startup can’t commercialize its product fast enough: Safari says they’ll be able to offer their launches at “around half” of what their customers would be charged currently (thanks to using mostly off-the-self rocket parts and balloons), but again she stressed that it’s actually not cost, but availability that is the biggest challenge for most.

• About SpaceQ
• Canadian Satellite Constellations

SpaceQ Space news and analysis.

SpaceRyde Releases Video of First Test Flight

Marc Boucher July 8, 2019 Business , News , Technology Leave a comment

SpaceRyde, formerly Loonify, has released a video of the first test flight of its stratospheric balloon launch system.

SpaceRyde, like over 100 competitors globally, is looking to capture a portion of the small satellite launch market. Their launch system is different than most. They plan on using a stratospheric balloon to carry a small rocket and the satellite payload to a very high altitude before releasing the rocket and launching it into orbit.

The flight took place on June 9, just days before the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) Super Session, where they graduated as part of the first class in the new Space Stream.

The timing was good as it gave them an opportunity at the CDL Super Session to talk about the first flight which was a partial success.

That test flight was conducted at North Bay airport and was conducted to a low altitude for the first flight. SpaceRyde co-founder Saharnaz Safari told SpaceQ that the CDL Mentor network was instrumental in getting connected to the right people to help make the launch a reality. The advice SpaceRyde received included how to handle airspace issues and to work with Transport Canada and other regulatory bodies.

SpaceRyde told TechCrunch that flight carried “a scaled down version of their launch platform and rocket in Northern Ontario, Canada. The test wasn’t a complete success – a modification to the off-the-shelf rocket engine they used didn’t work exactly as expected – but it did demonstrate that their in-flight launch platform orientation tech worked as intended, and Safari says the malfunction that did occur is relatively easy to fix.” A full scale demonstration flight is planned next year.

SpaceRyde can build on their experience at CDL and their first test flight. However, as experienced by another competitor, Zero 2 Infinity, launching from a stratospheric balloon is not easy. Zero 2 Infinity’s Bloostar program has been underway for over five years and is still looking to launch its first orbital flight.

The concept of launching from a stratospheric balloon is sound, however as with any launch system, there are technical challenges to overcome.

SpaceRyde was able to demonstrate the ability to stabilize their balloon, but reaching high altitude, stabilizing the balloon at that level, and launching the rocket, is another level of difficulty.

The good news for SpaceRyde is they obviously had enough momentum to keep them in the CDL program and to graduate.

Correction: The flight was conducted at the North Bay airport next to CFB North Bay.

Tags SpaceRyde Startup Files

About Marc Boucher

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Wednesday Oct 27, 2021

#2 - Lift Off: Launching the First Affordable Taxi to Space with SpaceRyde

• Download 38

Our second episode with Saharnaz Safari of SpaceRyde dives into space travel, satellites, and women in space. It is an inspiring story of grit and perseverance with a mission to bring Canada to the forefront of the space race and launch the first affordable satellite to space.

Learn more at https://www.spaceryde.com/ .

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Shift Blog / Spotlights / Founder Spotlight: Launching a Startup and Leading Out of This World Innovation

Founder Spotlight: Launching a Startup and Leading Out of This World Innovation

Sophie Blaine

Marketing Specialist - 01 Apr, 2021

How SpaceRyde Founder and COO Saharnaz Safari rises to the challenges of space exploration

Saharnaz Safari is the Founder and COO of Spaceryde, a company that develops aerospace technology and built the first taxi to bring satellites and cargo to space. Saharnaz has an innate talent for identifying problems and collaborating on innovative solutions, making her contributions to this space venture invaluable.

How Saharnaz pivoted her career and paved her way in the Canadian space industry

Saharnaz began her studies in sciences and went off to take her master's in analytical chemistry, with a hope to transcend into the medical community. Along her journey, she decided to pivot her studies and look for deeper fulfillment in her career. She went on to take her MBA at UC Berkeley, and there, she realized it was time to step outside of the box and pave her way. Saharnaz learned that you don't need specific education or experience to work in a particular industry if you want to contribute.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to contribute to space exploration or a physician to contribute to public health. You can pave your own way towards any career or industry you set your mind to."

Aerospace engineering requires a high level of risk assessment, which was a big part of her education in the health sector. Pioneering a rocket launch in Canada is glamorous, but more importantly, it is accessing the safety and logistics of doing so. Saharnaz owns her talent for complex problem solving and can design flawless procedures for previously uncracked, ciphering problems.

Saharnaz uses her superpower for solving critical, comprehensive problems

Saharnaz saw an opportunity at SpaceRyde to utilize her unique skill set: finding the most efficient way to solve problems. She recognized her strengths are best suited for an early-stage start-up. Saharnaz has found the most fulfilling part of her job is resolving these complex problems and finding innovative solutions by analyzing every corner of the issue.

Towards the end of 2018, Spaceryde was gearing up to launch the first balloon rocket carrier into space and encountered a difficult roadblock, the permit to launch. Saharnaz took this challenge by storm, and even though permits for rocket launch had not been issued in Canada before, she persevered and jumped through hoops to convey her vision. Saharnaz spearheaded this venture with very little knowledge on achieving a permit, but her perseverance prevailed, and the rocket launched in 2018.

"I think the most important thing about me is that I don't give up. I always try different solutions in parallel until I have explored all angles of a problem."

In her experience advocating for space exploration, Saharnaz discovered the best way to tell her story was to reach the people at the top, and interest will transcend to those at the bottom. Women like Saharnaz play a crucial role in space innovation, yet the perception that space is a male-dominated field has not changed. In her experience, she is often assumed to be a man and hopes to undo that perception. 

"But until the day that we have an equal number of women, to men in all high powered positions for at least a decade, that thinking doesn't change."

Saharnaz shares how she adjusted to a distributed workforce.

Saharnaz never backs down from a challenge, which is very evident in how she approaches work — quickly recognizing roadblocks and taking a methodical approach to project management. When SpaceRyde moved to remote work, Saharnaz brought creative solutions to her company and created a safe working environment.

Being in the same physical space is very important to SpaceRyde because they need to make quick decisions and move fast. Saharnaz recognized this as a priority and took the additional responsibility to solve the apparent challenge, leading a strategy for health and safety. In navigating this unfamiliar territory, Saharnaz honed her talent for exploring all sides of a problem and developed specific procedures that allowed SpaceRyde to continue its launch in October of 2020.

Luck or Hard Work: To which do you attribute your success?

"we all have those lucky breaks; it's about being in the right mental and physical mind to catch them and ride on them.".

Both. Saharnaz believes that without hard work, it doesn't matter how much luck you encounter if you don't know what to do with it. It's essential to recognize that luck happens to everyone, but you have to be ready to do something about it and sweat if you want to turn your luck into success.

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SpaceRyde just opened Canada's first orbital rocket factory near Toronto

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Canadian startup SpaceRyde officially opened the country's first orbital rocket factory in Vaughan this week.

The firm's 25,000 square-foot facility will produce a new generation of rocket technology that promises to consume far less fuel than conventional rockets, and dramatically reduce the environmental impact associated with lifting small-scale payloads to orbit.

The innovation making this possible is a launch system that uses balloons to carry rockets beyond the earth's atmosphere before ignition takes place.

The company has spent the last few years perfecting a rocket carrier system that uses onboard computation to stabilize and fine-tune the rocket's position in mid-air. This is critical because balloon-based launch systems are inherently susceptible to wind interference.

SpaceRyde's first successful test launch took place in 2019, and while the company is still working to develop reusable rockets, they've already solved the challenge of recovering the balloon and rocket-carrier apparatus for future deployment.

At the factory's ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, COO Saharnaz Safari described current rockets as "expensive beasts that take months to build, and a lot of money to launch." 

SpaceRyde's New 25,000ft² headquarters is officially open! A special thanks to @Cmdr_Hadfield for joining us in celebrating this amazing milestone! 🤫 Stay tuned for a sneak peak inside Canada's First Rocket Factory, coming soon! #spaceryde #rocketfactory pic.twitter.com/hDdfqPJbdN — SpaceRyde (@Space_Ryde) June 22, 2022

She added that "If we have on-demand space delivery [which is what SpaceRyde is working towards], we can benefit from space in ways that we just haven't been able to so far." 

Potential applications for SpaceRyde's rocket system include manufacturing synthetic hearts in microgravity, assembling and repairing solar panel arrays in orbit, and providing life-saving medical supplies to future space tourists.

SpaceRyde plans to run weekly launches to low-earth-orbit by 2025, and the expected cost per private trip is $250,000. If all goes smoothly, their first lunar mission will take place in 2024.

Asked about competition from established players like SpaceX , Safari explained that her company occupies a fundamentally different niche within the space industry.

"If SpaceX provides the highways of space, we provide the roads. SpaceX is working on taking people to Mars, but we think there's a big demand for rocket systems designed for shorter ranges".

Safari wrapped up her portion of the ceremony by saying "Today with this rocket factory, Canada is no longer going to wait in line to get to space, we are going to space on our own!" 

Although the company has investors from around the world, their team is entirely based in Canada, and they're currently working with eight interns from leading Canadian universities.

Safari believes it's SpaceRyde's responsibility to invest in the next generation of rocket scientists.

🇨🇦 first home grown rocket to launch in over 35 years. @Space_Ryde 🚀🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/EG0t6kaPKy — Loren Padelford (@LorenPadelford) June 21, 2022

Due to the proprietary nature of SpaceRyde's technology, they won’t be able to accommodate field trips or public tours for the foreseeable future, but anyone willing to make the trek to Timmins Ontario is welcome to attend launch events for free.

The drive from Toronto takes about seven and a half hours, which certainly beats going all the way to Florida. Former ISS commander Chris Hadfield , who attended Tuesday's ribbon-cutting ceremony commented enthusiastically about ways that SpaceRyde's technology will enable a more prosperous and sustainable future.

Bright young couple with 30 employees, building rockets to launch in an innovative way, from Canada. Details: https://t.co/3dbqye4WRj @Space_Ryde pic.twitter.com/EaqAGPFILo — Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) June 21, 2022

Hadfield pointed out that we can't solve food insecurity, pollution, deforestation, or climate change without tools that help us quantifiably track the planet's health on a daily basis.

Hadfield stated that "It's so difficult and daunting to measure these things from the surface, but it's almost effortless to measure them from orbit. That's a great opportunity and a need that the folks at SpaceRyde are addressing by helping get these sensors into low earth orbit so that they can start serving humanity."

He added that "The solution [SpaceRyde] is building is really elegant." and concluded, "It's time for Canada to take a ride to space on SpaceRyde!"

Robert Skuja Photography

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Episode 2 – Lift Off: Launching the First Affordable Taxi to Space with SpaceRyde

• October 27, 2021

Our second episode with Saharnaz Safari of  SpaceRyde  dives into space travel, satellites, and women in the space industry. Saharnaz tells an inspiring story of how grit and perseverance led to SpaceRyde launching the first affordable taxi to space. With the space economy projected to be in the trillions in the near future, SpaceRyde’s affordable taxi will enable this massive growth.

About SpaceRyde and Co-Founder Saharnaz Safari

SpaceRyde, founded in 2018, built the world’s first balloon/rocket launch system to launch affordable satellites and cargo to space without ride-sharing. This was achieved after fighting their way to get the first launch permit that Canada had issued for a rocket in 21 years in 2019. In the coming years, SpaceRyde plans to develop a two-way mode of transportation by putting assets into space and bringing back resources to Earth. They plan to leverage the growing satellite market that is expected to grow to $69 billion by 2030, up from the current $3 billion market in 2021.

Saharnaz Safari, with her husband Sohrab Haghighat, co-founded SpaceRyde to disrupt the space industry. Born and raised in Iran, Saharnaz went on to graduate with a master’s degree in bioanalytical chemistry from University of Waterloo and worked as a chemist until she moved to Silicon Valley to complete her Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of California Berkeley. Married for over 13 years to her husband Sohrab, who has a PhD and a Master’s in aerospace engineering and was one of the early engineers at Cruise, the power duo have big plans for the future of Canadian space.

To learn more, visit spaceryde.com or contact [email protected].

About Host Patrick McGuire

Patrick is a creative entrepreneur, team leader, and Altitude Accelerator board member who has focused on the sales and success of companies including: HR tech, fintech, sports tech, Software-as-a-Service, cannabis (CBD / THC), nutrition, health and wellness, fitness corporations, and business of all sizes with a love for helping business grow and scale from $500k to north of $50m. With an entrepreneurial mindset focused on team-building, his ethical leadership delivers win-win solutions for his companies and clients.

[showhide type=”transcription” more_text=”Show Transcription” less_text=”Hide Transcription”]

Patrick McGuire

Hey, it’s Patrick. Before we start, at the time of this recording, we went through a bit of a name rebranding from RIC Centre to Altitude Accelerator. With that in mind, we hope you enjoy the following interview. Welcome to the Startups Transformed Podcast. I’m Patrick McGuire, your host board member and advisor at Altitude Accelerator, where we help startups scale to new heights. We chat with phenomenal tech business leaders who climbed their way to success within their industry. Our guests delve deep into the lessons they’ve learned along the way so that you can get a head start on your next big idea.

Okay, this is going to be an interesting session. I mean, we’re talking space. We’re talking space travel and satellites, and we’re talking with someone who you might not think would be in this space to start with. Somebody who came from a totally different industry completely. Somebody who is continuously striving to reinvent herself and business and the way that we treat others and the way we think about people in business. And I think that is absolutely amazing. And as you might have caught it, yes, I said she. She is in the space industry, and I’m really excited for it because it’s an underpromoted category for women in space, and we need more women in space.

We need more women everywhere doing more business and doing great things. And Saharnaz is doing great things, and she’s doing it with probably the best partner she could have ever found if they don’t strangle each other first. And you’ll figure that out in a little bit. Saharnaz, thank you so much for joining us. I’m so excited. I appreciate your time.

Saharnaz Safari

Thank you very much, Patrick, super happy to be here.

I mean, let me just talk to it first and foremost. Then I’ll get Saharnaz to actually elaborate on this, of course. But imagine you want to go from downtown Toronto to run an errand. What do you do? Pull out your phone, you Google somebody, you search somebody, you search Uber, you get on it and you go no big deal. But SpaceRyde is creating that same service and affordable taxi, if you will, for satellites. How do we get more stuff up there to do things and efficiently.

So if you have a satellite that you want to send a space, you can easily buy a rocket and send it off with SpaceRyde. And that is pretty cool. You can send it to wherever you need to send it to. You could get it in orbit. You can basically have your own destination based private rocket. That is unbelievable. And before SpaceRyde, satellites would have to get on a bus. They’d have to be on a big rocket and they’d have to share a ride to a popular destination in space.

And the bus ticket might cost two and a half times, three times or more. So with SpaceRyde, why would you pay a higher rate for a bus when you can get to your destination with a cheaper taxi, if you will. Hopefully, I did that justice. But you tell me, what is SpaceRyde all about?

So we are all about utilizing space for a better life on Earth. We use GPS on a daily basis, and we forget that the reason that we have GPS is because we have assets in space because we have satellites in space and we can utilize space better. The bottleneck right now is launch. Satellites have gotten significantly smaller from the time in the 60s, there was Sputnik our first satellite, all the way to now, now, what satellites look like? They’re called shoebox satellites. They’re often between one to 4 kg.

They’re quite small, and these satellites are very powerful as well. They’re launched closer to the Earth. A bunch of them cover the Earth and they can do amazing things. They can provide Internet access to remote locations. You might have heard about Starling. I mean, Starlink satellites are slightly bigger than Shoebox, but they can provide Internet access. They can do remote sensing, for example, oil and gas leaks from pipeline. They can do climate monitoring. So if you’re worried about climate, which I think the majority of people around the world are, we can use satellites for that.

We can monitor what’s happening on Earth in terms of transportation, shipped goods, all that. And you see pictures of that ship got stuck in the Suez Canal and all that is happening with satellites. But these small satellites right now that they’re doing these amazing things, they’re going to be doing more amazing things as we have better sensors and better cameras developed. They don’t have a right to space. They don’t have their taxi to space. They have to sit and wait for a big payload, a big satellite or robotic arm or something like that that is going to a destination to book a rocket.

And then if they’re going to the exact same destination, yes, they can book spaces that are left on that rocket. That is how they get to space right now. And we want to change that.

That’s crazy. I didn’t even think of that level of logistics like, you have to hope that somebody else is going to the same place as you on the same date that aligns with yours and all this stuff.

Who wants to wait that long for a taxi?

Because taxis don’t exist. And this industry for small satellites is going to grow because we have realized what we can do from space and how we can utilize space to have a better life on Earth. But again, the bottom line is launch even right now, half of the market, half of the small satellites, when they get manufactured in the first year, they cannot find any right to space. They’re just sitting there collecting dust. And this market is even growing at a very fast speed right now, it’s 3 billion USD.

And by 2030, it would be 69 billion. So at 3 billion, we can only serve half right now with the bus system that we have.

Wow. So what was the year on that again? You said $3 billion USD today, but it’ll be $69 billion by what date?

• So nine years fromnow.

That is not long at all. And that is a massive industry. And from 3 billion to 69 billion projected, of course, by 2030. And even if you take a piece of that, that’s a phenomenal success story coming.

Yes. And I mean, we are not just going to send assets to space. We are also going to bring stuff back. We are going to bring back resources. And what we are trying to develop at SpaceRyde is this both way of transportation, going to space and coming back, putting assets into space and bringing back resources.

That’s a great idea. Well, first, let’s talk about what you used to do. And then let’s talk about why you’re doing this.

So I graduated with a master’s degree in bioanalytical chemistry from University of Waterloo. So my life was in a lab as a chemist, analyzing things, finding smal l quantities of pharmaceuticals in blood or other biological samples. And I went off to work at a Pharma company, then switched to Life Sciences. I had worked a year before in medical devices. And then I switched back to medical devices. So for ten years, I was part of the healthcare industry. And I started as a chemist in the lab. And then I graduated into managing product launches and what goes into software that controls life science instruments and so on.

And what I realized, I wanted to grow. And I kept changing the industry, thinking that, no, this is not the right fit. This is not the right fit. After a few years in each industry, and then I thought, okay, so I want to grow. I think I need more responsibility because every time I would ask for more responsibility, I remember one time I was leaving a company because I was moving to a different city. And my boss had announced something that they were looking for volunteers to learn a new thing.

And they kept announcing it because no one was volunteering. And I told him I was like, I’m leaving in a couple of months, you know that. But if no one is volunteering, you know, I’m always volunteering. And he laughs. And he’s like, I know about you, but you’re leaving. We need someone who’s staying. So that was always my attitude. I wanted more. And I was like, okay, I need to get an MBA, because that was what I saw in those big companies. I need to get an MBA to get to where I want.

So I ended up at UC Berkeley, got my MBA in two years. During that time, that area, Bay Area, you go and walk into grocery store. You can walk into Trader Joe’s and the people that are stocking shelves are talking about ideas they have to start businesses. Startups were very prominent there. And I got exposed to startups. I got to work with them. And then after my graduation, I got to advise them on the business side of things. And even then, I was still doing it with healthcare startups because that was my background.

And that’s when I noticed that my skill set, I don’t have to stay in healthcare, for example, it can be applied to other businesses. Space is also highly regulated, like healthcare industry. And so I’m using some of that expertise here as well.

That’s really interesting. I’m just going to sort of remind everybody, you don’t have to stay where you’re at. You don’t have to be satisfied where your current living is or your current business is. You can change your path at any time. You are who you plan to be or make it to be. And that’s exactly what Saharnaz did. She said, hey, I’m not satisfied. I’m going to try this. Okay. Saharnaz, why space in Canada? Why are you one of the rare women who are actually making an impact in Canadian space?

I mean, I don’t know why I’m one of the rare women. I want more women. I want to hire more women. So that last question. I don’t know why.

Hold on right now. Get in touch. If you got desires for aerospace space, anything that category technology. Get in touch with this lady. She wants more women to do great things in space. All right. Sorry, Saharanaz, go ahead. I apologize. But why did you get into space in the first place?

Yes. So I am married for over 13 years to my husband, Sohrab, who has a PhD and a Master’s in aerospace engineering and another Masters. But that’s another thing.

So literally a rocket scientist.

Yes! I live with a rocket scientist. And now I work with a bunch of them as well. And we were in the Bay Area. He was one of the early engineers at Cruise, the self driving car company that General Motors bought in 2016 for over a billion dollars. And so he experienced working with Cruise’s CEO. Basically experienced hard growth, building his own team, growing it to over 30 engineers. And at the same time, I was learning how startups work and the business side of things at school.

And we both realized that our mistake was that if we wanted to start a company, we had to have our own money and we had to have a lot of it. We didn’t know anything about venture financing and angel rounds and anything about that before. And so through his experience and my experience at school, we realized that. Okay, let’s start something. And we knew we wanted to come back to Canada. We wanted to live here and we wanted to contribute to the Canadian economy. And we decided to do the move back from Bay Area, which is not very common.

Usually, Canadians move to Bay Area, and then they stay there. We moved back and we had a child in Canada, and Sohrab started with his idea of launching rockets from balloons to make the taxi affordable for small satellites. And I was just helping him on the side because I had other ideas that I wanted to start. And space was not under my radar because I was not an expert in it. So I was just helping him with how to pitch and what is the market size and all those business things that initially a founder needs to know and a technical founder might not even think about.

And at some point, because I was at home and caring for our infant, I was basically spending over 10 hours a day. Every time that my son was asleep, I was working on this. It got to that point. And so I was like, It doesn’t make sense that you’re not a co-founder here. We were a little bit worried that the investment community, they might not be open to husband and wife teams. We had heard that some people just don’t like to invest, and at that point, I was like, I don’t care. You’re the best partner for me on this. Let’s do it together. And we find investors that also have the same view. And we have fortunately found them.

There’s a double commitment. What an amazing team. What a great story. But it is very rare. Oftentimes partners in business will say, choose your partners wisely, super amazing that you guys can do that together. And I’m so glad that he did decide, hey, it’s time that you’re a cofounder because you really are doing a lot of the business hustle. That’s amazing. And you guys are working well together and congrats for that. Very, very rare.

I also want to call out that you went looking for investors that were aligned with this vision and this thinking. That it’s okay to have your best friend and your life partner in business together with you. So that’s a great compliment to you guys, because some people don’t know, and they just go chasing money instead of interviewing money. And that’s what I recommend for entrepreneurs to always be interviewing money. Looking for aligned partners doesn’t just mean they’re partnering business or partnering life in this case or both. But also the partners who are going to contribute to your success in your future. And that includes those venture capitalists and Angels that are out there.

I was going to say we do have, I think two or three couples that have invested as a couple in us as well. So husband and wife teams that are part of our investors. One of them develops Facebook Messenger together and sold it to Facebook and became Facebook Messenger. And the other one s old their startups to Shopify. So, yeah, we do have a couple of investors.

Those are big investors with great stories. And I love that they’re couples. And just like you, they’re doing great things together going through this. Who’s your primary audience? Who are you guys really trying to cater to become your customers? Help me understand that a little better.

We can carry between 82 to 100 kilograms to space. And so any satellite or robotic system that is going close, they call it North Orbit or Sun Synchronous Orbit, where they’re going there. Their satellite is smaller than that. We can carry it for them. The industries that these small satellites serve are telecommunications. As I mentioned before, remote sensing and Earth Observation.

That’s a pretty interesting group. I mean, those companies are always investing in research and development, and they’re always looking for the next edge. And clearly being able to help from space is going to make a big difference and impact their business. But like you said, they might develop some tech that just sits in a warehouse for a couple of years before it can get deployed to space. You’re changing that game. That’s absolutely amazing.

And we do have great Canadian companies that could be our customers. They already have a few of their satellites up. Kepler Communications, for example, became the biggest satellite constellation owner recently in Canada.

We’re doing great things in Canada. We just have to also have the launch capability, which we’re trying to do.

So let me ask this. Tell us something about something that happened early on in your life. You’re originally not from Canada, I’ll let you share that in a moment. And I’d like to know something that’s impacted the way that you work today. Can you tell me a little bit about the story from there that changed the way you do things?

Sure. So I was born and raised in Iran, and there are a lot of human rights that you don’t have when you’re under an authoritarian regime. And especially as a woman, there are more rights that you don’t have. Simple rights, like what to wear, how to speak, what to speak. And I was brought up by my parents in a way that I was constantly fighting to get my rights back. And I did not realize how that had shaped me until I came to Canada because that was my life.

My life was constant fighting to get the simple things that other people have around the world, in other countries. And then I came to Canada. And because of how I was brought up, I don’t give up. So when someone tells me no, and founders hear no all the time on a daily basis from everyone, I don’t take no for an answer. I just do not give up. And that was how I was able to get the first launch permit that Canada had issued for a rocket in 21 years in 2019 for space.

Right. That’s unbelievable. That’s the first license issued to send anything to space in Canada. It took 21 years. And you’re the girl that made it happen.

I mean, before that time, we were issuing launch permits. And then for 21 years, there was no system, no one was launching. There was no application process that was drafted. I had to knock on so many doors to get in.

I mean, aren’t we the country that created the Canadarm that’s famous in space?

 Yes! We are. We just don’t launch them. We have to rely on the US and the Russia and other countries to launch our assets for us to space. And to be honest with you, the whole vaccine situation that we are facing right now and Canada used to have the capabilities of producing vaccine. And we don’t have it right now. In ten years, they’re going to be assets in space and back and forth travel between Earth and other objects in space. And if Canada does not have launch capability, we’re going to get behind the same way that we are behind on vaccine production.

And we don’t want that. We want to be able to be at the forefront of space and we don’t want to be left behind.

I can see that it makes sense. I love the fact that you said, I don’t give up and you have to do that. You have to have that attitude. All entrepreneurs have to have that attitude. And I try and remind everybody that founders have to fight. You’ve got to fight for what you believe in, and you got to keep going until you either succeed, burn out or you fail, and you fail successfully in a weird way. But it’s true. You guys just keep knocking on the right doors and you just don’t quit.

And, well, you’re getting assets out there, which is really cool. And when I say out there, folks, for anyone watching you’re seeing my hand go up through the roof, it’s out to space. So when was SpaceRyde founded?

• We started in September, hiring three engineers.

At that point from May to September. So I tried to get money and no one gave him money. So I convinced him that we should put some of the Cruise money that he earned, our savings, to start this. And so you see how I was hooked by then?

Yeah, you definitely were in.

We had three wonderful engineers. Two of them are still with us. And another one is doing his Masters right now, back to school. And we started going with designing a prototype because no one believes that you can actually launch a rocket from a balloon and it’s feasible mid air. And we wanted to show them that we can do that. So that’s how the company got started.

Interesting. Spinning on that. I know how you got started. We know that you’re putting small taxi Rockets in space and dropping assets up there. Tell me what one of the worst things or experiences you’ve had or what have you learned from that bad experience? Worse decision ever made, that’s how I would say it.

Both Sohrab and I have made- I mean we do make our hiring decisions together. Every candidate that we want to hire. At some point, both of us have spoken to them. But generally, he oversees engineering and I oversee business and operations. And so on both sides, we have made mistakes of hiring the wrong people. I don’t mean incompetent people. I just mean people that were not a good fit for an early stage start up. It’s very different working in a big company and in a small, early stage startup.

And the culture is very different in big companies. Everything is ready. You have a big support system. In early stage start up, you are the one. You have to make it happen no matter what. And so if one day the janitor doesn’t show up. You got to get the garbage out. If that is not good for you because you have a degree, then you’re not a good fit for a startup.

Patrick McGuire</ b> 

Yeah, absolutely.

Before we developed a very concrete hiring process, we’ve made some mistakes in hiring wrong people.

Excellent. I think that’s great advice for all entrepreneurs. Hire fast and fire faster. If there’s not the right fit, we can all get swooned by great people and things that they could do and the things that we think they could do. But the reality is, if that’s not what they want to do, they’re not going to fit no matter how hard you shove that square peg around hole. What’s the most important thing that’s led to your company’s success?

Besides not giving up? We don’t give up. No, we don’t. But I have to say our skill sets are complementary. And the other interesting thing is that a lot of things go wrong all the time. And things that annoy me and get me upset, don’t annoy him as much and the other way around. So we are able to calm each other down and get on with it because for some weird reason, things that are more problematic from my perspective are not as problematic. Or he can see the light at the end of the tunnel from that perspective. So we help each other out.

It’s very good. It’s very rare. You found your life partner, right? Great guy, works hard, but he complements everything you do, and you do the exact same, if you will, for him in family life and in business. Now, I’m not sure how the heck we could even have a conversation about the work life balance with you two. You’re a different breed of teammates. Most people say, yeah, I got to have work life balance. I’m like, yeah, but your work just went with you to work, and your wife went with you to work, and then you went home together and your husband went home with you and work never left.

How is that for you guys? Is that difficult at times?

It is very difficult. We have to put rules where whenever we are with our child. So typically, Sohrab brings our son to daycare in the morning, and I bring him back home. This allows both of us to be at work most of our time. And in the morning, he spends time with our son. In the evening, I spend time with him. And then at some point, both of us are doing the bedtime routine and all that. And during the times that we are with our son, and together we are not working.

We are not talking about work. We are dedicating our attention to him. Now it’s hard to stick to the rule because sometimes things go wrong and you automatically start talking about it. But our son has a good way of reminding us that he’s there.

Then it gets back, too.

But sometimes other people have to tell us. My mom was helping us out during the first lockdown when they closed daycares, and she was taking care of her son while we were working. And she was like, you guys don’t even realize that you’re constantly working, even when you come home.

It’s hard.

You talk about work.

Yeah, and that creeps in. But if you love what you’re doing and you love the people you’re doing it with, which clearly you do, it’s not that difficult to be able to live that lifestyle, whereas other people just don’t get it. They can’t do it. They’re not entrepreneurs. They’ll never understand that. Let me think about a couple of things here. So thinking back to younger, pre-entrepreneur Saharanaz. The young lady who’s thinking, I’m in health tech. Now I’m thinking about entrepreneurship. What are three things that you would have told your younger self about this journey you were about to take?

So the first thing is something that you pointed at. Was that what you study at University or where you end up in your career does not dictate where you have to spend your entire career. You can change that as I did. So don’t feel like you’re stuck. You chose wrong. This is something that I would have told myself.

You still might have been in space, but you would have just done it sooner, perhaps.

I would have definitely had started a company sooner, if not space. The other thing is, it goes back to not giving up. Everything is possible. You just have to find a way to do it. So don’t take no for an answer. Don’t respond to people that say, oh, this is impossible. If you think it’s possible. If the math is correct. In our case, the math and physics has to be correct. Otherwise, obviously, then it’s not possible.

You have to be just a little accurate.

Exactly. If you’re convinced that this works, make it happen. And the other thing that I would have told myself is if something is not working. For example, if you’re at a job and comes a day that you feel like I do not want to go to work, you have to move on, move on, quick, make the decision. Don’t stay in, because I stayed. And I was hoping, okay, maybe they will give me more responsibility. Maybe if I do this, maybe if I ask that. And the fact of the matter was I was in the wrong size of the company, the wrong stage of the company.

For every company that I worked for ten years, I chose incorrectly. And if I had realized that sooner, I would not have spent all that time. So, yeah.

I would say this. Did you choose correctly or incorrectly? Or did you choose correctly? Because all those little steps got you to where you are today. But entrepreneurship is sometimes contracted like a disease, like a virus. And sometimes it’s in your DNA. And you are, well, Iranian Canadian woman in space, you probably just checked a whole bunch of first boxes. And you’re doing a fantastic job at it. Being that this is the RIC Centre Startups Transformed podcast. How did you come into connection? Do you remember who or why you found RIC Centre and tell me a little bit about that?

Absolutely. So one of my classmates at UC Berkeley was a Canadian that had worked at RIC Centre. He came to UC Berkeley one year after I was there, and he was working at RIC Centre before. From the beginning, he knew he wanted to do entrepreneurship. I didn’t know. I started, I was like, I’m going to get an MBA. I’m going to go back to healthcare industry, but now in a more responsible role with more responsibilities. So my first year basically got kind of wasted going in a different direction.

I did an internship at a big medical device company, and I was like, I’m going to kill myself. I cannot go back to this. And then I started working with startups, and I loved it. And it was the second year. So he started working together in the entrepreneurship things that happen on campus. And so I knew him through that. And when I decided to start to come back to Canada and start the company, I remember that he had worked in entrepreneurship. So he should know the entrepreneurship scene of Toronto.

In Silicon Valley, I knew the accelerators. I knew where to ask for help and that sort of thing. I didn’t know anything about Toronto because when I was in Toronto, I was just working at a big company. So I contacted him and he was like, I used to work at RIC Centre, and they helped entrepreneurs. I was like, oh, can you put me in touch? And then Sohrab got in touch with Pam. And they were like, oh, we love what you want to do. And so that’s how we got connected.

That is awesome. Yeah. Pam Banks, obviously, anyone that talks to Pam Banks that wants to be in entrepreneurship. If they’re still thinking about it, Pam will help you flip the switch and fall off the cliff if you want. It’s a great feeling when you know you’ve got people on your side, that know the path to get you where you need to go. Pam is one of them. And I just want to remind people that, hey, RIC Centre is research, innovation, commercialization. It is a center that breathes excellence, collaboration, community helps guide entrepreneurs.

If your goal is to go to space or go beyond the moon and the stars, RIC Centre can help you do it. SpaceRyde is obviously one of them that has taken advantage of it. What I would also remind you is that if you have a dream, just go for it. Don’t give up. Don’t say no. Don’t let anyone else say no to you. And Saharnaz has done that. I already told all the ladies, but all the guys too to get in touch with you. To reach out to you.

How do we learn more about SpaceRyde? How do we get in touch with you? What’s the best way to do that? Help share that information with us.

Absolutely. So spaceryde.com is our website. We have a careers page. We receive resumes at spaceryde.com and ride is misspelled with a Y. You can follow us on LinkedIn. We’re very active on LinkedIn. We talk about our open positions there. We put pictures, we highlight our staff. So you know, if you’re interested in applying, who you would be working with, who are these people? What are their backgrounds, they’re amazing Canadian talent. We have Twitter and Instagram, Instagram we use for whenever we have fun activities, we take some pictures and put it up there.

So if you want to know the vibe of SpaceRyde and how it is to work there, you can follow us on all these channels. If you have a satellite you want to launch or anything else, you want to launch, [email protected], we will get back to you.

That is awesome. And I’ll tell you folks, I’ve obviously trolled through their social media. There are some cool pictures and videos. I watched one of the test flight videos that you had where you basically had the big balloon and you had the propellers on, I would call the world’s largest drone and you were testing out the control system. So if you guys want to see some images of activities and Rockets, things that will inspire you, just get in touch with these guys, visit their social media, visit their website.

I think it’s amazing. As we’re about to sign off here, my one question for you, given back the hindsight and the forsight that you have now, given the opportunity to be an entrepreneur all over again, starting from scratch. Would you do it?

Absolutely 100%.

That is conviction. Now, I didn’t ask her if she’d do SpaceRyde again. I just said, Would you do it again? And the answer is yes. So I have no doubt in my mind that this woman is going to do something absolutely incredible for SpaceRyde, for Canadian space, for Canadians, for women, for international women. And she’s going to do whatever she wants when she wants and she won’t say no, and won’t give up. And whatever your next venture is will be awesome. But I can’t wait to see so much more success from SpaceRyde.

Saharnaz, it’s been a pleasure. So excited for you. Congratulations to your husband and you. You found the perfect what I would say soulmate and sorry if I’m romantic that way, but I am and you’re an awesome inspiration to everybody, to every culture. So thank you so much for joining us on this session.

Thank you very much, Patrick. I hope that the audience enjoys it. And we have heard from so many Canadians that used to drive to the US to watch Rocket Launches. Hopefully you can see it here in Ontario happening.

That’s incredible. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Was a pleasure.

Thank you. Same here.

That was SpaceRyde. And that was a heck of a ride with Saharnaz. Have yourself a great day, everybody. We’ll talk soon. Take care.

Thank you for joining us on Startups Transformed Podcast. You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed the conversation, a rating or review goes a long way. Recommend the show to a friend. Find us at altitudeaccelerator.com where we we can help you begin your startup journey with access to our workshops, advisors and mentorship opportunities. Be sure to tune in for our next episode.

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Launching SpaceRyde into space

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There may have been some doubters when Sohrab Haghighat and Saharnaz Safari left Silicon Valley in 2018 to return home to Canada and launch a space industry startup out of their garage in the City of Richmond Hill, in York Region. But not anymore.

What started as a husband-and-wife team with a dream is now a 30-person enterprise backed by $10 million in investments and supported by Chris Hadfield’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) and Y Combinator, a technology startup accelerator run out of California.

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“Initially, it was difficult to raise funds for such an out-of-this-world idea, so we invested our own savings from Silicon Valley, hired a few engineers and rented an office in a coworking space because we were building the first system in our garage and needed more room,” says Safari, who had over 10 years of experience launching products in the health-care industry at the time and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

“Once we got into the CDL Space Stream and received our first investment through Y Combinator, we were off to the races.”

Based on technology that makes getting out of Earth’s lower atmosphere a lot less polluting than traditional methods, and getting into space a lot less expensive, SpaceRyde uses high-altitude balloons to float its rockets above 99 per cent of the atmosphere.

Once there, the rocket is launched into space where, instead of turning into space junk after its main mission is complete, it can be repurposed and used for everything from fueling stations for other deep-space missions, delivering packages to space tourists and transporting raw materials to space factories to providing GPS co-ordinates to the moon and even removing space junk.

“Unlike every other rocket, they’re not harming the environment by depositing particles into the ozone layer and emitting carbon into the atmosphere,” Safari explains about what makes the SpaceRyde rockets unique. “Once in space, they will become part of a network of orbital rockets that are used for other purposes.”

SpaceRyde got the first permit that Transport Canada had issued in over a two decades to launch into space, and flew its first system eight months after launching the startup. Its next space flight will take place in 2023 — not bad for two dreamers.

For Haghighat, who has a PhD in aerospace engineering and was managing engineering teams in Silicon Valley at Cruise Automation (the self-driving car company that was bought by GM for over $1 billion) before moving back to Canada, it’s a sign that the choices they made as space entrepreneurs were correct.

By moving to York Region, the couple was able to save on startup costs and connect with a community of local suppliers that kept SpaceRyde cruising, even during the pandemic.

“It’s a very small industry, with not a lot of players, especially in Canada, but the proximity to partners and suppliers in Vaughan, which has a very vibrant industrial community, is a huge advantage and it saves a lot of time and money, especially when you’re working on prototypes and doing testing with a lot of back and forth, like we were during the pandemic. We’re very close to our suppliers here, which has helped us a lot,” Safari says.

“Also, Vaughan has many industrial buildings, and SpaceRyde is growing rapidly and will be needing more space, which is more available and less expensive than it is in a place like Toronto.”

As part of its growth, the company, which is set to change the future of space transportation and support life-changing medical, agriculture and manufacturing advancements as part of the process, is hiring for various engineering positions and business and operation roles.

It also has many other opportunities, including for avionics, propulsion, software and structures interns. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work for us,” Safari says.

SpaceRyde currently works with telecommunications companies and Earth observation initiatives to help monitor climate change, predict tsunamis and detect gas and oil leaks.

In the future, it hopes to build an essential network of rockets that provides affordable travel between Earth and space and enables scientists to accomplish such feats as building artificial hearts in space using micro-gravity.

To find out more about SpaceRyde or any of the employment opportunities currently available at their Vaughan factory, visit spaceryde.com .

For more information about the innovation ecosystem in York Region, visit yorklink.ca .

This story was created by Content Works , Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of The Regional Municipality of York.

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25 episodes

Welcome to the official podcast of the Canadian Space Society (CSS) where we bring you underrepresented narratives of Canadians working in space! Stay tuned for interviews with astronauts, astrophysicists, doctors, space biotech entrepreneurs, astrophotographers, space artists, STEM educators, science communicators and many more fascinating individuals!

Space, Eh‪?‬ The Canadian Space Society

• 5.0 • 3 Ratings
• OCT 31, 2023

S3 EP7: 'Pay Loads' of Attention to Space Startups

We’re chatting today with Peter Dyba from Space AlphaInsights. He's an engineer with multiple years experience in Project, Systems and Radio Frequency engineering. We talk about the future of payload systems and space startups in Canada and also about navigating career paths to find work you truly enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/space-eh/message

• FEB 18, 2023

S3 EP6: Are Men and Women Affected Differently by Space? ESA Calls on the World's Citizen Scientists to find out!

Astronauts endure a lot in space and as we prepare to send our first woman to the moon, its important to consider whether men and women respond differently to space and space radiation.  ESA’s Space Medicine Team is doing exactly that. Today, we chat with an intern in the team who is supporting the crowd-sourced systematic review of literature to see what we find regarding sex differences.  The team ESA Space Medicine team at large comprises of medical doctors, biomedical engineers, exercise physiologists, psychologists, IT specialists, education coordinators, administrators and project managers. Each plays a vital role in ensuring the health and well-being of astronauts during all stages of a mission. To better support astronauts during current missions to the International Space Station and prepare for human missions beyond low Earth orbit, the Space Medicine Team is working to identify, evaluate and develop new space technologies and procedures. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/space-eh/message

• OCT 30, 2022

S3 EP5: Diaries of Space Explorers with Gavin Tolometti

Having a space podcast isn't easy but it isn't isolating either if you can find others just like you!  Today we’re back with another episode chatting with Dr. Gavin Tolometti. He is an aspiring science communicator and holds a PhD in Geology and Planetary Science from Western University. He’s got experience working at the Canadian Space Agency, workshop experience from the European Space Agency, and now works as an outreach high school program coordinator at Western University. We talk about Science Communication, Podcasting, Analog missions, and combining your interests to create a fun and exciting career!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/space-eh/message

• SEPT 17, 2022

S3 EP4: Balloon to the Moon with SpaceRyde

What's a marriage if you don't start a rocket company together? Today we’re chatting with the co-founders of SpaceRyde, COO Saharnaz Safari and CEO Sohrab Haghighat. SpaceRyde is the first on-demand network of rockets with the ability to transport cargo from the Earth to the Moon, and everywhere in between. The innovation making this possible is a launch system that uses balloons to carry rockets beyond the earth's atmosphere before ignition takes place. Let's take a ryde with SpaceRyde!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/space-eh/message

• AUG 1, 2022

S3 EP3: Vibe Check with Mariam Naseem

In this episode, we caught up with Mariam Naseem (who we last spoke to in S1), to follow along in her journey to the stars!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/space-eh/message

• APR 26, 2022

S3 EP2: Space ‘Eh’-I - The Gamechanger We Always Needed

In this episode, we spoke to CEO Evandro Barros, one of the Top 50 AI CEOs of 2021. He is the founder of Data H, an artificial intelligence venture builder.  Data H transforms science into business opportunities through the creation of AI companies. From autonomous delivery robots, behaviour analysis for security and defence and analyzing cyberattacks in real time, to enhancing scientific research, building medical imaging and more, Data H helps companies transform accumulated and dispersed knowledge into algorithms, generating new products and services and improving existing processes. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/space-eh/message

• © The Canadian Space Society

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Noise complaints help bring down launch startup SpaceRyde

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TAMPA, Fla. — Canadian launch startup SpaceRyde has filed for bankruptcy just months after noise complaints put an end to rocket engine tests.

The five-year-old company, which had been developing a rocket that would use a stratospheric balloon as its first stage, filed for bankruptcy Feb. 10 and named Deloitte as trustee to handle its affairs.

SpaceRyde had raised about $10 million from a mix of early-stage investors and government awards, but needed more funds ahead of a goal to start commercial launches in 2024 with a 20-meter-tall rocket.

The plan was to charge customers $250,000 for delivering payloads under 25 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO) using SpaceRyde’s three-stage rocket Ryder rocket, which would fire engines after a balloon took it above most of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

In addition to cubesats, the company had said Ryder could accommodate 100-kilogram to 150-kilogram satellites for a maximum launch cost of $1 million. 

The venture had planned to launch test payloads to sub-orbit and LEO this year before commercial flights.

Planned customers included Qosmosys, a Singaporean venture planning satellite racing games , and a subsidiary of Dutch cubesat maker Innovative Solutions In Space.

Further out, SpaceRyde also had plans to fly a demonstration mission at the end of 2024 to around the moon and back to expand its business.

It is a challenging market for space startups as tough macroeconomic conditions weigh on their access to capital. 

Small launch startups, in particular, have to grapple with high up-front costs in a market where SpaceX is seeking to grow its dominance by lowering prices .

For SpaceRyde CEO Sohrab Haghighat, who co-founded the startup with his wife Saharnaz Safari, it had an even bigger hurdle to clear.

“Our issue was not lack of interest,” Haghighat said, adding that the startup had “a perfectly-placed product and price.”

Instead, the company ran into a testing roadblock last year that Haghighat described as “one of the biggest issues — perhaps the biggest issue we had.”

He declined to provide more details.

The Trent Hills municipality of Ontario asked SpaceRyde to stop engine tests from a lot in the region Oct. 7 after their noise brought attention to how an industrial application was operating on rurally zoned land.

When SpaceRyde bought the land, “the understanding at the time was it would be a temporary operation that focused on supporting the business of testing balloon technology to deliver satellites into orbit,” Trent Hills mayor Bob Crate said during a Sept. 13 council meeting.

A petition started last year to stop SpaceRyde rocket engine tests it says can be “ heard for many miles ” has received more than 800 signatures.

The Trent Hills municipality said SpaceRyde can continue tests if it gets approval for a new planning application with the correct zoning.

“To date, no planning application has been received by the Municipality proposing any change in use for the site,” the municipality said in a Feb. 9 update.

The municipality also said there had been no rocket engine tests at the site since it asked SpaceRyde to stop them.

This article was updated Feb. 14 with more details about community complaints against SpaceRyde’s tests.

Jason Rainbow

Jason Rainbow writes about satellite telecom, space finance and commercial markets for SpaceNews. He has spent more than a decade covering the global space industry as a business journalist. Previously, he was Group Editor-in-Chief for Finance Information... More by Jason Rainbow

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Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia

Some results uranium dioxide powder structure investigation

• Processes of Obtaining and Properties of Powders
• Published: 28 June 2009
• Volume 50 , pages 281–285, ( 2009 )

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• E. I. Andreev 1 ,
• K. V. Glavin 2 ,
• A. V. Ivanov 3 ,
• V. V. Malovik 3 ,
• V. V. Martynov 3 &
• V. S. Panov 2  

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Features of the macrostructure and microstructure of uranium dioxide powders are considered. Assumptions are made on the mechanisms of the behavior of powders of various natures during pelletizing. Experimental data that reflect the effect of these powders on the quality of fuel pellets, which is evaluated by modern procedures, are presented. To investigate the structure of the powders, modern methods of electron microscopy, helium pycnometry, etc., are used. The presented results indicate the disadvantages of wet methods for obtaining the starting UO 2 powders by the ammonium diuranate (ADU) flow sheet because strong agglomerates and conglomerates, which complicate the process of pelletizing, are formed. The main directions of investigation that can lead to understanding the regularities of formation of the structure of starting UO 2 powders, which will allow one to control the process of their fabrication and stabilize the properties of powders and pellets, are emphasized.

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Investigation of the Properties of Uranium-Molybdenum Pellet Fuel for VVER

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Elektrostal’ Polytechnical Institute (Branch), Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, ul. Pervomaiskaya 7, Elektrostal’, Moscow oblast, 144000, Russia

E. I. Andreev

Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (State Technical University), Leninskii pr. 4, Moscow, 119049, Russia

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Original Russian Text © E.I. Andreev, K.V. Glavin, A.V. Ivanov, V.V. Malovik, V.V. Martynov, V.S. Panov, 2009, published in Izvestiya VUZ. Poroshkovaya Metallurgiya i Funktsional’nye Pokrytiya, 2008, No. 4, pp. 19–24.

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Andreev, E.I., Glavin, K.V., Ivanov, A.V. et al. Some results uranium dioxide powder structure investigation. Russ. J. Non-ferrous Metals 50 , 281–285 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821209030183

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Published : 28 June 2009

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821209030183

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