After delays due to flames and a boat, Canada to make third try to launch a rocket to space

The Hadfield engine, named after Chris Hadfield, will take Nordspace's Taiga rocket to the edge of space in its first flight

The first commercial rocket to blast off from Canadian soil doesn’t look like much.

Less than five metres tall — not even as tall as a two-storey house — the rocket, dubbed Taiga by its Canadian makers at Nordspace, will lift off from a scrubby corner of coastal Newfoundland, just outside the small town of St. Lawrence, about 350 km southwest of St. John’s. Its maiden voyage is expected to last about a minute, and it won’t even reach orbit.

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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield calls that a good start.

“I’m really impressed with the way that Nordspace is going about their business,” Hadfield said in an interview with National Post. “Not just build