Company hopes latest local venture literally blasts off

By Collin Gallant on May 29, 2024.

@@CollinGallant

A “made-in-Alberta” rocket may reach outer space in 2026, according to the man whose company manufacturers equipment in Medicine Hat and which has already tested early models this spring at CFB Suffield.

Vladimir Mravcek, head of Atlantis Research Labs, plans to unveil the goal at a major technology conference, Inventures, today in Calgary.

He told the News on Tuesday that to put a domestically designed and built rocket launched from Canada into orbit would not only be a first in the nation’s aviation history, but bring the country truly into the commercial space sector from Western Canada.

“It hasn’t been done before with a Canadian team with Canadian technology,” he said. “We’ve tested a group of novel hybrid rockets that feature innovations that make us very cost competitive compared to others in the market, including much larger market leaders.”

Mravcek says his is one of more than 10 private companies now racing to be the commercial space sector.

“Our ultimate goal with the orbital program is to provide sun-synchronized orbital service, Canadian satellite and payload launch,” he said. “We’re the only G7 country that doesn’t have that (domestic capacity).”

Ahead of this week’s announcement, Atlantis has released video of the test launch, completed in late March at CFB Suffield with the aid of teams from the University of Calgary.

That rocket, known as Mark I, was launched to test systems that will be scaled up on the Mark II version that is being developed, potentially for first launch in 2026.

From stationary to mach speed and hypersonic velocity, Mravcek says the goal is to reach 110 kilometres, or 330,000 feet, above the earth to a point at which the lessening force of gravity allows mass to “float.”

“We’re focused on being a pickup truck that takes loads up and down for Canadian companies, government and military,” said Mravcek, citing 1,000 Canadian items per year that are lifted to space by U.S. companies from U.S. facilities.

“We’re part of a supply chain.”

The project has been hinted at for several weeks by provincial politicians and local economic developers, who are in active discussions with the firm, the News has learned, about local investment.

Premier Danielle Smith teased it during an early May event in the Hat. In her address, the local MLA told business leaders to embrace the idea that the southeast of the province could host high tech and aerospace investment.

“There is incredible growth in aerospace and defence industries here,” Smith said. “Every time I come here there’s an incredible tour organized … like Avro, which is going to go into competition with (Space X owner) Elon Musk, I understand.

“That’s happening here, and there’s going to be more as we’re increasing access to the City of Medicine Hat.”

Atlantis Research Labs first set up shop in Medicine Hat in 2015 to manufacture high-efficiency oilfield flaring equipment, and eventually purchased local fabrication company Form-Tech to build the “PureJet” system.

Another Atlantis subsidiary, Avro – so named to harken back to Avro Aircraft, considered a touchstone of innovation and national pride for aircraft aficionados – continued work on a propulsion system for conventional aircraft.

Since 2020, the firm has concentrated on “vertical” applications that Mravcek says will eventually deliver payloads of up to one tonne to the edge of space.

Putting scientific experiments, lightweight satellites and items for radar applications into low orbit and return them to the ground covers a need now being filled in the U.S..

Atlantis is a private company with shareholders, and the work on the project has been completed in partnership with the University of Calgary engineering department.

Support has also come from federal agencies PrairiesCan (formerly Western Diversification) as well as the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

Access to the 2,700 square-kilometre Suffield base for prototype testing was approved by the federal government, said Mravcek, and future use could provide a base for research and future operations.

Mravcek said the firm is actively exploring a doubling of its 40,000 square-foot operation in Medicine Hat, and would engage local suppliers and service providers in hopes of building capacity here.

Medicine Hat Economic Development announced May 9 that aerospace and manufacturing would be two of three initial focus areas to develop sector-specific investment campaigns.

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